Embracing Ethical AI: The Human Touch in Business Integration

Introduction

Unsurprisingly, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into organisations has surged - promising increased efficiency, productivity, and innovation. However, as AI becomes more pervasive, so too do concerns about its ethical implications. 

Turing Award winner and AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio has, among others, voiced concern about the potential of AI intelligence creating something akin to another species that becomes impossible for humans to control.  The starkness of this warning means that organisations are increasingly recognising the importance of incorporating ethical considerations into their AI strategies, and there is strong advocacy (and need) for a 'human in the loop'.

Ethical Considerations

Ethical concerns surrounding the organisational use of AI are multifaceted and becoming more prominent. The rapid advancement of AI arguably outpaces the development of appropriate ethical frameworks, governance, and legislation, leaving businesses and governments to navigate uncharted territory. 

One approach to addressing these concerns is implementing a 'human in the loop' model that emphasizes the indispensable role of human oversight and intervention. This model ensures that AI-driven decision-making aligns with ethical standards and organisational values. Rather than replacing human judgement entirely, AI should be positioned as a tool to augment human decision-making capabilities. 

This is particularly crucial in mitigating algorithmic bias, but the real question is whether or not those biases can be identified, rectified and countered with sufficient rigour. Integrating human oversight into the algorithm development process with the intent to promote fairness and equity in decision-making has, to some extent, always been present (humans create them, after all), and yet we have already seen dimensions of development and deployment that do not reach these ethical ambitions…

AI integration earns its place as the number one trend, but perhaps we should be looking at whether organisations are prepared to ask themselves the challenging questions—are their ambitions for AI integration ethically aligned? Have they considered their internal AI strategy? Do they have the capacity to apply ‘worst-case scenario’ playbooks? Is the dynamic between legislation and regulation about to shift into the realm of ethical interpretation, and do organisations have the in-house skills and experience to navigate this critical ethical landscape?

With that in mind, is the next digital transformation, in fact, organisational AI transformation?