ETHICAL QUESTIONS

While progress in AI is exciting, legitimate worries are still abound. Internationally, businesses are rushing to formulate effective, proftable developments, and as with any rapidly evolving technology, a steep learning curve forms. Unfortunately, this means that mistakes and miscalculations will be made and that both unanticipated and damaging impacts will inevitably occur.

“When you query ChatGPT, it will generate responses that seem correct and consistent with your understanding of the question,”Brix, said. “However, as you continue to probe and ask ChatGPT where it is fnding its information, ChatGPT, begins to fabricate titles and entire papers. These papers sound legitimate but actually don’t exist,”

To limit inaccuracies within this fruitful and responsive industry, AI ethics was formed and upheld by the experimental community. AI ethics is a set of values, principles and techniques that employ accepted ethical standards to guide the development and use of AI technologies. According to Interesting Engineering, AI ethics has emerged in response to the range of societal harms that the misuse or poor design of AI may cause.

It is important to note that the databases AI uses are cultivated using the dynamics of existing society. As a result, technologies fueled by skewed data often amplify whichever negative construct is portrayed in the data. Likewise, because many designers craft the metrics, features and analytic structures of the data, these technologies can potentially express the same preconceptions and biases of the designer.

A timely example of bias augmentation is criminal risk assessment software. Programs such as the Correctional Offender Management Profling for Alternative Sanctions have had a damaging impact on criminal activities because of their bias. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the creator of this software, Equivant, chose the data COMPAS uses to make its conclusions. As a result, the creator unknowingly incorporated their own bias into the software.

A recent report published by ProPublica delves into machine bias, determining that algorithmic tools such as COMPAS contain levels of racial discrimination. According to the study, COMPAS falsely determined that black offenders are at a higher risk of reoffending or committing violent offenses than white offenders. The creators of COMPAS caused this issue because they chose data that refected a specifc worldview. The signifcant systemic bias in the data was then amplifed in the software itself.

To further demonstrate the diffculty in assuring the ethical use of AI, programs like Synthesia can generate custom videos were it appears like a real human is speaking. While such a program is initially accepted as a facilitator to communications, the worry that this technology can develop into a tool for deception among biased creators endures.

“As a science, AI should be sheltered. It is so delicate and it should only be developed by trained professionals who have to sign a code of ethics,” sophomore Naomi Galez said. “Also, new software should be peer reviewed by other scientists and the government in order to prevent misuse.”

While offcial rules and protocols to manage the use of AI are developed, the scholastic community has sanctioned the Belmont Report as a means to guide ethics within experimental research of algorithmic development. There are a few principles discussed within the Belmont Report, one titled Respect for Persons, which acknowledges the autonomy of people and sustains an expectation for experimenters to protect individuals with lessened authority.

Diminished authority can be caused by a variety of circumstances such as illness, a mental disability or age. This principle primarily touches on the idea of consent and how consent relates to AI. Individuals should be aware of the potential risks and benefts of any AI experiment that they are a part of. Also, they should be able to reform their decision participate at any time before or during the experiment.

Unoffcial AI ethics guidelines have been established and are being upheld by the majority of the experimental community. Their purpose is to lessen the number of individuals that are mistreated as AI develops. To stop the panic at the sight of progress, AI ethics will jumpstart the symbiosis humanity strives to achieve with AI.

by the numbers

27% of Americans report that they interact with AI several times a day

Source: Pew Research Center of businesses reported increasing investments in data and AI

91%

Source: New Vantage Partners of offce workers believe AI improves their overall performance at work.

62% of consumers are willing to submit data to AI to have better experiences with businesses

Source: Salesforce

81%

Source: 3GEM Snaplogic

90% of new enterprise apps will use AI by 2025

Source: International Data Corporation