AI ethics for business – Part 1

I recently joined a small group of E&C professionals who decided to complete the free online course on AI Ethics for Business, offered by Seattle University.

We agreed to complete a module or two every week and to share our insights. Here are some of my insights from Module 1:

• Every organization engaged in developing AI should identify the principles and values that will guide their efforts. So far, it seems that only large technology companies or professional associations have published their principles. But with regulators now starting to weigh in, organizations should accelerate their work.
• From Google to Microsoft to the IEEE, the principles articulated are all based on similar values. My favorite value when it comes to AI ethics is transparency. If we can clearly and completely articulate what the autonomous system is doing for the human, and how, we can address many of the current and future concerns around AI.
• People face ethical dilemmas all the time and they come up with excuses to avoid resolving them. A common excuse, which I find particularly relevant to AI ethics in business, is “hurry”, or the pressure that most employees feel to deliver products and services quickly. People want to be seen as efficient, as meeting goals, as contributing to the overall success of the company. But we all know that pressure is a key element of fraud, which, in the case of AI, can lead to disastrous effects.

To read more about this topic and about my colleagues’ insights, please visit this thread on LinkedIn.