Who is Responsible for Ethical AI?
Have you ever wondered what ethics in “Ethical AI” means? It comes from the word “ethos,” which refers to the study of character, morals, and customs. While we all want ethical development and application of AI, the question is, who gets to decide what’s ethical and what’s unethical? Defining ethics in AI is not straightforward.
Recently, I was creating a presentation about AI ethics in Canva and playing with the AI image generator. I typed in “Draw a stupid Robot,” and boom, it told me: “Stupid may result in content that doesn’t meet our policies.” It didn’t generate anything! It made me wonder what’s the problem with “stupid”? Or who decides on these ethical policies for everyone? 🤔
Let’s think of AI technologies as kids and the people developing them as parents. Just as our parents taught us what was right or wrong when we were kids, most developers try to embed ethical frameworks and moral principles into AI technologies. We were taught basic ethical values, such as not to steal or hurt others. While these basic ethical principles were often the same, other ethical nuances varied depending on our parents’ beliefs and backgrounds. Similarly, in the tech world, while there might be a consensus on fundamental ethical principles for AI, people inside tech companies may have different ethical values or interpretations of what’s wrong or right. So, this raises a question: who is in charge of defining and implementing AI ethics in the technologies we use every day? The tech giants behind foundational AI technologies? Other tech providers, who use these technologies to build AI solutions? Government agencies? Or us who are using these AI tools?
Honestly, it should be a discussion among all of us: the tech companies, the government agencies, and all of us. But for us to have a say in the game, we must understand how this AI works. Once we understand AI, we can confidently engage with tech providers and discuss AI ethics. Our knowledge is like our superpower here.
Let’s talk if you are interested in discussing your AI ethics and governance.
