Part 1: A Journey into Practical Ethics and AI

February 5, 2020 Leave a comment

Hello World,

 

I have not posted in a while since I have been a little pre-occupied doing my job.  I read daily and keep so many articles on AI and I see the tide come in and go out on opinion on where AI is in being used and how advanced or how simplistic it currently is.

But one thing seems to be ringing true and that ethical practises in AI need to be addressed.  I here about some companies calling for regulation or “laser” regulation which sounds to be a bit concerning.  

When I work with clients the discussion of data and the ethical use are discussed because without clean and ethically clean data the AI algorithm or digital platform will fail.  Once you get into the AI side of the discussion then you are into areas of bias, variance and transparency.  

So from my perspective I see ethical practices to being fundamental in all aspects of implementing AI.  I have said this many times but regardless of industry or technology you can reduce the discussion to a strategy around People, Process and Policy.

So with the rubric in hand of those three principles I am going to set off on a journey step by step to look at how practical ethics can be applied to people, process and policy in the realm of using AI technology. 

Wish me luck and may the trade winds be at my back.

BTW the images may be a little random but they are mine and they just give you something nice to look at while thinking about applying ethical practices to your data and AI journey.

Filed under AI, Ethics, Explainability, Information Lifecycle Governance, Transparency Tagged with , ,

We interrupt normal broadcasting for a thought bubble !

October 7, 2019 Leave a comment

Good Morning.

 

I got into my car this morning as usual and at some point I pull up Spotify to play one of my own playlists.  This morning I was a victim of their own marketing initiatives.  Instead of my recent heavy rotation playlists being at the top there was this podcast link to Startup.  I read the blurb and it seemed interesting since I did have a stint as an entrepreneur in starting up a small retail/wholesale business when I finished university.  So I started the podcast and interestingly it was on the live journey of Gimlet.  This episode dealt with the run up to Spotify acquiring them.  One area of discussion that they mentioned was the cultural or managerial differences in running the business.  Matt was focused on strategy and running the company by logic and numbers.  Whilst, Alex was running the creative and content.  One comment stuck out that the word “feeling” came up.  In that if in business review meeting something was discussed that touched on the creative side then the word “feeling” kept coming up.  “That doesn’t feel right”  or that “feels like a good idea” whereas the numbers (sponsorship, subscriptions, revenue and growth) would be counter to what felt good

Like all good marriages there will be this counter balance.  But it got me to thinking that AI projects fundamentally need to align to the strategy of an organization: ( Cost/Value, Industry/Market differentiation etc). However if culture change is not incorporated into the project then we will hit a larger wall.  Organizational change management is always given lip service but when you deal with peoples “feelings” in business there has to be a means to accommodate and or incorporate that into to plan for AI to succeed.

I always reflect back to the fact that tip jars or charity jars in shops always do better if you put ‘googlly eyes’ on the jar.  The put a human face—or at least eyes—on something seems to help in interaction and success.  Robotics is the third arm of AI and we are seeing that if a human interaction element deals with perception, interaction and emotion it is more successful as well.

Bottom line of this thought bubble: plan for and incorporate the broad array of perceptions and emotions into the AI solution design and business case.

 

Now back to normal programming.

Filed under AI, Cognitive Computing, Contextual Computing, digital marketing Tagged with , , , , ,

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