A Closer Look at AI Ethics and Its Relationship with AI Development
Tech
AI ethics: An urgent call for action. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought about numerous benefits, but with it comes new challenges. One such challenge is ensuring that AI is developed responsibly and ethically. However, despite its growing popularity, AI ethics remains a topic of little discussion.
This week in AI: AI Ethics Keep Falling By The Wayside
As we witness the rapid advancement of AI technology, there are certain aspects of the field that have consistently been ignored or underestimated. One such aspect is AI ethics. It is often mentioned as one of the most crucial parts of AI development but rarely given attention in practice. In fact, the idea of AI ethics was almost completely absent from the first AI conference held at Carnegie Mellon University in 2016.
This unfortunate situation has led to a lack of standards and regulations being put in place for AI developers to follow, leaving them to come up with their own guidelines and moral principles when working with these technological marvels. This absence of ethical considerations is not only detrimental to society as a whole but also poses significant risks to the technologies themselves. Without a clear understanding of how AI works and what kinds of actions it can be programmed to perform, designers and creators are prone to creating machines that may pose harm to people, not just directly but indirectly through the propagation of biases or manipulation.
Furthermore, without established norms in place, there may be confusion over who is responsible if a machine causes harm or disaster. For example, if an autonomous vehicle accidentally kills someone, would it be the manufacturer or the person driving? These questions will become increasingly important as the use of AI increases exponentially, reaching almost every facet of human life. As such, it is essential to start focusing on AI ethics before it's too late. The European Union has taken steps towards this by launching the AI Ethics Guidelines 2019 to define ethical principles for AI developers. Similarly, organizations like the World Economic Forum have also begun creating guidelines for AI ethics development. Additionally, non-governmental organizations like Amnesty International have already started educating AI researchers and developers about ethics and responsibility. While progress is slow, it is clear that the importance of AI ethics cannot be ignored any longer.
It is time for companies and organizations to take the ethical aspect of AI seriously and put their effort into establishing guidelines for ethical AI development. This week in AI: AI Ethics Keep Falling By The Wayside.
