The difference between good and bad or right and wrong has been one of the most prominent questions for mankind. Ethics helps in discerning the answers to such questions with the help of moral principles. The future of artificial intelligence depends on the extent to which it can showcase ethical behavior. You can explore the answers to “What is AI ethics?” as they are aimed at optimizing the beneficial impact of AI.
The primary goal of AI ethics focuses on reducing the risks and adverse outcomes in projects involving artificial intelligence. However, it is important to learn about artificial intelligence ethics through practical examples and case studies. Some of the notable examples of AI ethics examples include issues of fairness, robustness, inclusion, data responsibility and privacy, trust, moral agency, and value alignment. Let us learn more about the principles of AI ethics and practical examples.
The Rising Need for AI Ethics
The growth of big data has fuelled an unprecedented growth in the number of initiatives to empower data-driven decision-making and automation. Generally, the intention behind AI applications revolves around offering better business outcomes. However, the necessity of ethics examples in AI is clearly evident in the form of unforeseen circumstances with AI applications.
While some companies attribute their problems with AI to biased datasets, others point to the lack of upfront research design. The rising complaints about unfair outcomes in AI applications have led to the demand for new guidelines, particularly in the data science and research communities.
Leading companies with AI projects have also showcased an interest in shaping guidelines for ethics in artificial intelligence as they experience issues due to AI ethics. Failure to comply with the requirements of due diligence can lead to legal and regulatory consequences. As more regulators take an interest in AI projects, companies would have to follow some essential AI protocols. Most of the examples on AI ethics reflect the significance of guidelines to prevent infringement of civil liberties and human rights.
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Important Principles of AI Ethics
The number of protocols and rules for managing the applications of AI has been growing continuously. Interestingly, the Belmont Report has emerged as a popular source of reference for artificial intelligence ethics in experimental research and development of algorithms. The three primary highlights of AI ethics include respect for individuals, justice, and beneficence. Here is an overview of their importance in defining ethics for artificial intelligence.
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Respect for Humans
The first principle underlying AI ethics focuses on respect for humans. AI should recognize the autonomy of every individual alongside establishing expectations for researchers to safeguard individuals with limited autonomy. What are the artificial intelligence ethics examples where you can find persons with limited autonomy? Individuals with illnesses, age restrictions, or mental disabilities could exhibit reduced autonomy.
The principle of respect for humans focuses on the value of consent. Individuals should take note of the potential risks and benefits associated with any experiment they participate in. On top of it, individuals must have the freedom to participate before the stipulated time or withdraw at any time during the experiment.
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Justice
Another formidable element in the AI ethics examples points to justice. The principle of justice focuses on resolving issues with equality and fairness. Who should be on the receiving end of benefits of experiments with AI and machine learning? According to the Belmont Report, the different ways for distributing benefits and burdens include merit, equal share, individual need, societal contributions, and individual efforts.
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Beneficence
The principle of beneficence draws inspiration from healthcare ethics. Beneficence aims at ensuring that AI would not inflict any harm upon others. It is a powerful aspect in ethics examples for AI as it prevents amplification of bias around gender, race, political views, and other factors. As a result, beneficence could help in reducing bias in a system, even if an algorithm introduces it to improve the system.
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What Are The Most Prominent Issues for AI Ethics?
The conversations around AI ethics draw attention to a broad range of issues. As a matter of fact, the review of issues with AI could provide a clear impression of the urgency to introduce AI ethics. Here are some of the notable issues of AI alongside the ethical concerns of each one of them.
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Generative AI and Foundation Models
ChatGPT reignited the AI revolution to an extent, particularly by encouraging mainstream attention towards generative AI. The chatbot by OpenAI showed multiple possibilities you can achieve with artificial intelligence. ChatGPT has been developed on the basis of foundation models. The foundation models are trained on unlabeled data through self-supervision.
However, the need for bringing questions like ‘What is AI ethics’ in the use of foundation models emerges from the ethical concerns associated with them. Some of the popular ethical concerns associated with foundation modes include false content, societal impact, bias, misuse, and limited explanations.
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Impact of AI on Jobs
The most prominent theme in discussions about AI ethics is the impact of AI on employment. What would happen to thousands of truck drivers if a logistics company switches to AI-powered self-driving trucks? Most of the complaints about ethics in artificial intelligence revolve around concerns about job loss.
The implementation of new and disruptive technologies could lead to a shift in market demand for specific job roles. Similarly, artificial intelligence would also lead to a shift in demand for jobs in different areas. At the same time, it is important to understand that AI would not take away your jobs.
On the contrary, it would create many new job roles. For example, organizations would need experts to manage AI systems and the changing preferences in customer service. The primary focus of AI ethics would be on evaluating the effect of AI on the job market alongside helping professionals switch to new areas with market demand.
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Bias and Discrimination
The concerns of bias and discrimination in different intelligent systems have led to multiple ethical questions on the applications of artificial intelligence. What is the ideal approach for safeguarding against bias and discrimination when the training datasets could lead to bias? The scope of artificial intelligence ethics for protection against bias and discrimination could also have arguments for the well-meaning intentions of automation.
On the other hand, it is important to notice the consequences of adding AI to certain business practices, such as hiring. In addition, the problems of bias and discrimination are applicable to different applications, including social media algorithms and facial recognition software.
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Technological Singularity
Technological singularity might seem like the least of concerns in examples of ethics in AI. Researchers assume that AI is less likely to surpass human intelligence in the immediate future. However, it is important to review artificial intelligence ethics examples with references to technological singularity or the development of super-intelligence. The idea of super-intelligent systems creates multiple doubts regarding the use of autonomous systems, such as self-driving cars. Therefore, the ethical debates around innovative AI technology have been gaining momentum.
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Accountability
The most noticeable trait of the AI landscape is the fact that it does not have an overarching global legislation for regulation of AI practices. In addition, countries and states have been working on development of AI legislation and local implementation. Some of the components of AI regulation have already been developed, while some are still under development. Different ethical frameworks have emerged as alternatives to regulations and encourage collaboration between researchers and ethicists for governance of development and distribution of AI models.
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Approaches for Implementing AI Ethics
The review of ‘What is AI ethics’ and the different ethical concerns associated with AI ethics prove the necessity of ethics for AI. You should know that artificial intelligence works according to its design, development methodology, and training. In addition, the elements of tuning and approaches for utilization also provide a clear definition of AI utility.
How do you implement AI ethics? It involves the creation of an ecosystem featuring ethical standards and safeguards throughout different phases of the lifecycle of an AI system. Researchers, organizations, and governments all over the world have been reflecting on ethics examples in AI for resolving existing concerns.
Interestingly, the structure followed for AI ethics can vary from organization to organization or country to country. At the same time, you can find some common elements in AI ethics frameworks worldwide. The two essential elements for a successful AI ethics program include governance and the principles of ethics.
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Governance
Governance is one of the foremost initiatives that you can come across in AI ethics examples for different industries. It is an act of the organization that involves supervision of the AI lifecycle from the perspective of internal processes and policies, systems, and staff. Governance is essential for ensuring ideal functionality of AI systems according to the intended principles and values of an organization.
In addition, governance also ensures that AI systems work according to the expectations of stakeholders and the relevant regulatory requirements. An effective governance program could serve multiple roles in ensuring responsible and safe use of AI. The governance program focuses on the following important pointers.
- Definition of roles and responsibilities for people associated with artificial intelligence.
- Improve awareness of people in the AI lifecycle regarding responsible development of AI.
- Setting up the processes for development, management, monitoring, and communication about AI technology and risks.
- Leveraging the important tools for improving performance and credibility of AI systems throughout their lifecycle.
One of the most popular examples of implementing ethics in artificial intelligence is IBM. It has established an AI Ethics Board as the governance mechanism for its AI initiatives. The AI Ethics Board includes leaders from different departments in the business and offers a centralized review, decision-making, and governance process for ethical policies and practices by IBM.
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Examples of Organizations Which Promote AI Ethics
Ethical standards in AI have emerged as the first priority of many organizations working in the domain of AI. You can find a glimpse of artificial intelligence ethics examples with the different ways in which organizations implement AI ethics. The different organizations that use AI ethics include DARPA, AI Now Institute, AlgorithmWatch, NASCAI, and CHAI.
For example, AlgorithmWatch is a non-profit that offers a traceable algorithm alongside a transparent decision process for AI programs. DARPA by the US Department of Defense aims at encouraging promotion of transparent and explainable AI and AI research. AI Now Institute is another non-profit at the New York University working towards AI ethics. It is presently working on research for social implications associated with artificial intelligence.
You can also find a better impression of the significance of artificial intelligence ethics with examples from use cases in other industries. For example, the healthcare industry could use AI to guide healthcare decisions for patients who need additional care or medical attention. Interestingly, researchers at UC Berkeley have identified the possibilities of racial bias in such algorithms. Such types of ethics examples in healthcare suggest the need for effective, ethical frameworks to resolve them.
On top of it, the banking and finance industry could also utilize AI ethics to address the challenges of transparency, bias, and accountability. The AI system of Apple in the financial world, Apple Card, has showcased instances of gender bias in the AI system. The need for ethics in AI has also been observed in other business functions, such as hiring. As a matter of fact, Amazon utilized AI to improve its hiring processes. However, the AI hiring system showed concerns of bias on the grounds of gender for rating candidates.
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Final Words
The examples of ethics in the world of artificial intelligence show the world that AI needs guidance. Organizations, governments, developers, and users have to work together to shape the conscience of AI and practices associated with it. The importance of ethics in artificial intelligence extends beyond the discussions of saving jobs from AI or introduction of new in-demand job roles.
It is important to evaluate the other ethical concerns associated with AI, such as bias and discrimination, accountability, and singularity. As artificial intelligence becomes bigger, it is important to review the ethical implications associated with AI use cases in different industries. Learn more about AI ethics in detail now.
