Ai4 2023 Panel Insights: Building AI Responsibly in the Enterprise

By Vasudevan Sundarababu

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to revolutionize our world, it is crucial that we prioritize safety and responsibility of the models built and deployed. At the recent Ai4 Conference, I spoke on the panel “Building AI Responsibly in the Enterprise” where I shared my insights on how to embed responsibility and ethics into AI, with a focus on the people involved gleaned over two decades working with clients. I call this the “PPT Approach” to responsible AI.

Putting People First

First and foremost, to ensure responsible AI, organizations must establish an active Governance Board or Committee. This diverse group (and it should be diverse), should include representatives from leadership, legal, compliance, data science, ethics, user experience, industry & regional domain experts as well as risk management just to name a few. The aim is to provide a well-rounded perspective and prevent any one group from exerting undue influence/bias on development.

Equipping employees with a comprehensive understanding of AI capabilities, ethics, and data handling is crucial. Organizations should prioritize organization-wide training, along with effective knowledge management and change management strategies. A workforce well-versed in AI and its impact can contribute to responsible development.

Process is Key

Defining considerations like fairness, transparency, and data privacy is essential to creating a foundation for responsible AI. These principles must be tailored to specific customer and business use cases, considering the varying impacts and risks of AI systems.

I’ve found it critical to implement regular review and approval workflows, these are vital to assess AI models for biases, inaccuracies, and compliance with established principles. It’s also necessary to gather stakeholder feedback on AI impact and performance to enable continuous improvement. Never forget that human intervention remains crucial for addressing cases where AI may falter.

Being prepared for unexpected scenarios is important. Having an Incident Response Plan in place helps address unintended AI behaviors, system failures, or public relations challenges effectively.

Technology for Transparency

Transparency tools, such as explainable AI (XAI) tools, play a significant role in making AI decision-making transparent and understandable. These tools build trust by showing how AI operates in the real world. By demystifying AI, we build trust.

Have you examined automated monitoring tools? They’ll provide your team with real-time insights into AI performance, biases, and anomalies so you can promptly identify and address issues, allowing for continuous improvement of AI systems. Also, it may seem obvious but making documentation systems a priority ensures transparent records of data sources, model training, validation procedures, and decision reasoning. Clean records are just a better base.

The "PPT Approach" = People, Process, and Technology

By establishing an AI Governance Board, investing in comprehensive training, defining guiding principles, implementing effective processes, and utilizing cutting-edge technology, organizations can create a holistic AI governance model that leads to an ethical AI future for the entire globe. We achieve responsible AI by aligning People, Process, and Technology.

Ai4 will be releasing the recording of my panel session soon, so be sure to stay tuned to Centific’s social channels over the coming weeks.

Thank you, now let’s build an ethical AI future together.

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