AI Ethics: An Introduction
- Ethics are based on well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do.
- These ethics constitute rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or special virtues.
In simple words, we can understand ethics as the principles of life that a person follows in different situations of his life.
- Our ethics majorly govern the decisions that we make.
- For example, taking responsibility and accountability, trust, and mutual respect for for each other.
- There are a lot of ways in which AI is influencing our lives these days, many concerns often rise about its ethical use.
Let us now look at some of the major ethical concerns around the role of AI in our world.
Bias is the act of performing favoritism or discrimination for or against an individual or group.
Similarly, AI biases are nothing but inclination or prejudice the machine may offer while providing specific solutions.
- The system learns from the data you feed it with, understanding a pattern and giving you a solution.
- We must be careful so that we may not, even by mistake, lead AI to have certain problematic behaviors or interpretations.
- It is because of this that AI can be biased.
AI solutions are a reflection of the data it is using to build its algorithm.
Biases can find a way into the algorithms in many ways.
Machines use an initial set of data to learn and produce solutions. This initial data is also called training data.
This training data may have been filled with unintentional human biases in the first place.
These biases are a serious concern. Machine bias becomes a complex problem when the variables are sensitive. Let us look at some example addressed below:
Companies using automation for recruitment may face AI bias issues.
The machine might favor a single type of profile.
Historically overrepresented social groups will be more, compared to the marginalized or the under-represented.
As you know, for the sake of law and order, civilized societies have rules and regulations which every citizen must follow.
Similarly, as AI users, we must adhere to Responsible AI ethics.
Why do we need ethics:
Ethics are the code of conduct to use AI and eliminate or reduce AI abuse.
It is vital to keep a check on how humans are using AI.
AI can do spectacular things if it is provided with the required data and quality training.
Keeping AI within controlled limitations through codes of conduct will help us use it for good.
six principles of Responsible AI, stated bellow:
- Respect human rights
- Equity and inclusion
- Safety, security, and reliability
- Personal privacy
- Enable human oversight
- Explainable use of AI