Can AI be selectively used or trusted by decision makers?

There are many positives coming from EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen for AI.

In her political guidelines, Ursula von der Leyen stressed the need to lead the transition to a healthy planet and a new digital world. In that context, she kick-started the debate on ethical Artificial Intelligence and the use of big data to create wealth for societies and businesses.

As you may of already heard, social media platforms and artificial intelligence developers will face new regulations under a European Union plan published 19th February 2020.A new strategy proposes a framework for the use of artificial intelligence, which would include a labelling scheme for trusted technology. The commission said regulation around artificial intelligence would be risk-based, with products in areas like health and policing facing stricter rules than those used in consumer goods.

AI is a collection of technologies that combine data, algorithms and computing power. Discrimination and bias can show for example in the gathering of data, and how the data’s processed. Organizations that use AI can be held responsible for these biases in the implementation of artificial intelligence, for example in the use of packages (pre-built code) you can add to applications to give better functionality for example facial recognition software.

AI has to power to enhance and change our lives enhancing decision making through better performance and data analytics, for example in healthcare (e.g. making diagnosis more precise, enabling better prevention of diseases), increasing the efficiency of farming, contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation, improving the efficiency of production systems through predictive maintenance.At the same time, Artificial Intelligence (AI) entails a number of potential risks, such as opaque decision-making, gender-based or other kinds of discrimination, intrusion in our private lives or being used for criminal purposes

Checkpoint

• Should our business build our code starting with a blank page?
• What governance can we apply to packages that have unchecked bias?
• Have we considered weighting for results that could produce a form of confirmation bias?

Tying in with AI excellence and trust, are calls for digital centres in Europe to be carbon neutral by 2030.The use of AI systems can have a significant role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.