My Co-Founder, Joe Woodruff, and I, took the plunge into generative AI. We have been playing with personas, creating dinner recipes, writing stories and gathering great research to say the least.
But it's not all fun and games. As most parents have said at one time or another, "It's fun until someone gets hurt."
Who knew that as a CIO you would be an AI parent?
And more, that you must lead a responsible AI-enabled enterprise. Here are the top ten areas of focus to regulate and safeguard generative AI.
Ethical AI Principles: This includes values such as fairness, transparency, privacy, and accountability. These will guide our AI research, development, and deployment, ensuring they align with our mission and expectations.
Transparency and Explainability: We want to increase trust and accountability. Whenever an AI system makes a decision, it should provide an explanation understandable by non-expert users. Building and deploying 'Explainable AI' or 'XAI' models can help us to achieve this.
Bias Mitigation: We must be rigorous in auditing of our training data, constantly monitoring for bias in outputs, and continuously refining our models to improve their fairness.
Privacy and Data Protection: AI systems often handle sensitive data, making privacy and data protection a top priority. Anonymizing data, following data minimization practices, and ensuring compliance with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA are crucial first steps.
Robustness and Security: Accidental and malicious misuse are a constant threat. We must implement rigorous testing and validation, as well as the use of advanced cybersecurity practices to prevent system compromise.
Human Oversight: Even with the most advanced AI systems, it's crucial to have a person in the loop who can intervene in the decision-making process when necessary. This not only increases trust but also ensures legal and ethical accountability.
Continuous Learning and Improvement: AI technology evolves rapidly. We need to stay updated with latest advancements and regularly reassess our AI governance practices. Consider participating in professional AI communities, collaborating with AI research organizations, and investing in AI education and training for our employees.
Legal Compliance: AI laws and regulations are continually emerging and evolving. We must work closely with our legal team to keep abreast of and comply with AI-specific laws and regulations in the jurisdictions where we operate.
External Auditing: Inviting third-party experts to periodically audit our AI practices can help us identify blind spots, improve our practices, and increase our stakeholders’ trust.
Stakeholder Engagement: Involve our stakeholders, including employees, customers, and the public in our AI governance process. This will involve seeking their input on our AI ethics principles, keeping them informed about our AI practices, and being responsive to their concerns.
The above easily serves as the basis of a scorecard for responsible AI use. Where are you currently strong? What is the one area that needs attention the most?
Remember parent-teacher conferences? Louis Johannot says, "The only reason I try to meet and know the parents better is because it helps me to forgive their children."
We don't need to be that parent; and we don't need to be the parent who fears the grade or is concerned of what is becoming of our child. We won't if we lead out in responsibility.
Instead, be the parent that gives their kid two things: roots and wings. Anchor AI into your company, and do so in ways that lets it fly.
