AI Ethics Approach is Reactionary instead of Proactive

In the recent past, AI solutions are pervasively deployed and at scale in many application areas of societal concerns and used for high stakes decisions such as in healthcare, finance, manufacturing, criminal justice, retail, government, entertainment, defence, and so on. Organizations must consider the concrete organizational and social contexts that drive the use of AI. It is crucial to understand specific circumstances and challenges associated with deploying AI systems in various domains.

The complexity of deployed AI systems goes beyond just data and compute complexity. It is vital for organizations to anticipate and foreshadow legal and regulatory requirements as they evolve alongside the rapid pace of innovation. With the emergence of new technologies, ethical guidelines should be flexible enough to accommodate these advancements and provide guidance on their responsible development and deployment.

Many organizations view AI ethics as a novel concept, something that demands the creation of new committees, roles, and positions. But what if this notion can be challenged?

Welcoming Approach to AI Ethics:

Organizations might be more receptive to AI ethics, if they view it as an extension of their current practices, rather than an entirely new initiative. This could speed up the adoption of ethical considerations in AI development. While AI ethics, with its unique complexities, requires a specific expertise, it does not mean that an organization’s existing knowledge and skills are irrelevant. By integrating AI ethics into current frameworks, organizations can leverage their existing expertise to address ethical challenges.

Many existing regulations are reactive in nature, only being put in place after an incident or concern has already taken place.

For AI systems to be ethical and legal, they must be legal and compliant with regulations, and also must be governed. Regulations generally lag behind the cutting edge of AI innovation. As the field of AI is rapidly growing, with new applications and technologies constantly being developed at a great pace. Regulators and policymakers are struggling to keep pace with the latest developments in AI and may lack the required expertise for effectively regulating the field.

This may result in lack of clear guidance for Organizations developing AI systems and challenging for them to ensure compliance with all relevant laws and regulations.

?The current pace of regulatory evolution is not in sync with the frenetic pace of developments in AI research and practice.

Due to the increasing complexity of AI systems and its black-box nature, coupled with its intrinsic probabilistic nature, leads to challenges in establishing best practices that are both the state-of-the art and compliant with regulations.

Imagine a world where ethics is not an add-on rather an integral part of AI journey. You are at the heart of cutting-edge organization, where AI development is seamlessly intertwined with ethical considerations. It is not an additional task, it’s not a checklist item; it’s ingrained into the workflow.

The data scientists, the legal experts, the developers – they all are on the same page, speaking the same language. Ethical concerns are no longer something to be addressed in a silo; they are an ongoing conversation, a shared responsibility.

The success of integrating AI ethics expertise hinges on an organization’s ability to seamlessly blend it into their current processes.

Thankyou for reading this article. Hope you find this useful.

By Rupa Singh

Author of 'AI Ethics with Buddhist Perspective'