Guest Blog: Ethics In Artificial Intelligence Panel Recap
NC TECH recently hosted a Tech Talk Live panel discussion around "Ethics in Artificial Intelligence" with moderator Jonathan Kraftchick of Cherry Bekaert.
About Jonathan
Jonathan is Cherry Bekaert’s Managing Director of Training and Development for the Assurance & Accounting Services group, where he is responsible for overseeing much of the Firm’s audit training, course development and delivery. He has spent more than 15 years conducting audit engagements for a variety of companies and industries throughout the country, as well as writing and delivering courses both inside and outside of the Firm.
Panelists
Sean Doherty, Chief Software Architect, CrossComm
Richard Boyd, CEO, Tanjo Inc.
Angela Doughty, CIPP-US, Ward and Smith
Michael Dresnack, Principal Data Scientist, MetLife
Drew Simshaw, Fellow, Elon University School of Law
A data scientist, two attorneys, a developer and a tech CEO walk into a bar…
Artificial intelligence has become quite the buzz word lately. In the excitement of all the many benefits AI promises, it can be easy to neglect the ethical issues any new technology brings with it. AI is different though. Most technological advances give humans new abilities which presents its ethical challenges that need to be considered. AI, however, can potentially give computers new abilities which brings with it not just new ethical dilemmas, but an entire new way of thinking about ethics in general. While we can patch a bug in a system, it is much more challenging to fix the impact on human life.
Along these same lines, earlier this month, NC TECH hosted a unique session of five panelists to answer a series of questions about ethics in AI spanning five categories:
Accountability
Who is responsible for determining “appropriate” use of AI? How do we agree what appropriate is?
Employment Concerns
How do we prepare for the possible masses of employees who could be replaced by AI?
Honesty/Integrity
Is it possible to align AI agents with human values? More importantly, is it possible for humans to agree on which values to align AI agents with?
Fairness
Is there a risk of deepening the economic divide with the wealthy having access to be better AI? Should there be legislation to make the benefits of AI accessible to the masses?
Transparency
What level of insight does the public need to have into the data used to train these systems? Is it ethical to be subject to a decision made by a program without full knowledge of the data and criteria of how that decision was arrived at?
Many professions take a “do no harm” approach to ethics. With technology, we can tend to build it first and ask for forgiveness later. Advancements in AI will most certainly continue and as they do, the questions will change and the answers may continue to elude us. However, as several panelists mentioned, these forums are not important because of the answers being given, but because the questions being raised.
Upcoming Artificial Intelligence Event
In May, NC TECH will host its annual State of Technology Conference with an "Artificial Intelligence" theme. Register today for your chance to explore this important topic further.
Interested in submiting a Guest Blog?
Contact Rachel Kennedy.