6 minute read
Ethical deployment of AI
NCI Agency Legal Adviser Sujin Chan-Allen tells Simon Michell why the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) requires constant vigilance to ensure that it is not introducing bias, unfairness and unlawful outcomes
Q
Why does AI implementation have an ethical dimension?
A The use of AI can generate significant benefits for individuals and society, but its risks must be properly minimized and managed. Consequently, a human-centric approach should underpin AI activities, focusing on such elements as: the respect of fundamental rights, applicable laws, ethical purposes and, above all, the avoidance of unintentional harm. 89
NITECH ››› SUPPORTING NATO AND THE NATIONS Reliance on AI has permeated through virtually all aspects of our lives. It has an increasingly powerful impact on daily activities, in autonomous vehicles, healthcare diagnosis and education, as well as cyber security and defence.
The ethical dimension features at many stages of AI development and implementation – processes that are closely linked in machine learning. We need to ensure that datasets collected for training systems do not violate user privacy or autonomy. When testing the tools, it is necessary to ensure that individuals (the general public, test subjects) are not exposed to unacceptable risks. There are also risks of over-reliance on AI – such as over-reliance on imperfect datasets leading to inaccurate or biased results, or even errors in life-and-death decisions. Finally, there is the risk that extreme deployment of AI could massively impact critical infrastructure.
Q
What are the main human biases from which AI algorithms can suffer?
A Bias can infiltrate algorithms in numerous forms and result in unfair decisions. Algorithmic bias in AI systems can take varied forms, such as gender bias, racial prejudice and age discrimination. Human developers or programmers are influenced in their decision-making, based on background, life experience, training etc.
But, even if sensitive variables such as gender, ethnicity or sexual identity are excluded, AI systems learn to make decisions based on training data, which may contain skewed human decisions or represent historical or social inequities. Any organization or company should be profoundly aware of these threats and seek to minimize them as an urgent priority when looking to deploy AI solutions.
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NATO policy makers need to be aware of the potential ethical implications that AI can introduce (PHOTO: NATO)
NATO faces similar ethical challenges to all other international organizations when implementing AI algorithms (PHOTO: NATO) NITECH ››› SUPPORTING NATO AND THE NATIONS
Q
Why do these biases matter for an organization such as the NCI Agency?
A The NCI Agency faces the same challenges as most other organizations that implement AI. The richness of diversity among NATO nations means that bias in AI implementation could potentially affect the functioning of our systems, and impact on our operations. We need to be acutely aware of the possibility of biases, because we are involved in decisions affecting international security. For example, we need to ensure that our choices do not negatively impact our mission or undermine our responsibilities under international and humanitarian law.
Q What is the NCI Agency doing to ensure that the AI algorithms it uses are fair and unbiased?
A The NCI Agency pursues data science activities, whether in-house or through procurement from industry, and as NATO’s CIS service provider, it generates large amounts of data. All data science activities within the Agency are governed by NATO Civilian Personnel Regulations, the NATO-wide Code of Conduct and NCI Agency Guidance for Privileged Users of CIS.
In the Agency, we need to be scrupulous about the data that we use, we need to make sure that we understand the data that we use, and we need to continue to bring deep subject-matter expertise about how AI machine
learning models work. We also need to continue to test and validate our results.
To avoid bias in AI, we need to be diverse in terms of race, gender, age, experience, culture and nationality, among other things. AI implementation through diverse teams helps to ensure that the right questions are asked in the early stages of development and that problems are addressed ahead of implementation.
It is important that end users are given an opportunity to provide feedback on what might have been missed, in order to facilitate the continuous optimization of our systems. It is also essential to introduce and/or enhance robust training programmes to inform individuals of their unconscious biases. An added benefit to this sort of education syllabus would be that it is very likely to reinforce our values in diversity and inclusion more generally. 91
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
Prof. Dr. Haluk Görgün
Chairman, President and CEO, ASELSAN
Could you highlight ASELSAN’s air defence capabilities and your ongoing activities in NATO?
With more than 25 years’ experience in the field of air defence, we offer comprehensive short- to long-range solutions. We assign utmost importance in attending NATO exercises, where interoperability and standardization are aimed among all nations. Within this scope, ASELSAN participated in the CWIX exercise, which is one of the essential NATO exercises in the air defence command and control (C2) doctrine. Moreover, we are also preparing to participate in the NATO C-UAS Technical Interoperability Exercise, which is planned to be conducted in the Netherlands in November 2021. We believe these exercises are indispensable for the future of C2 system integrations among NATO members to counter emerging common threats.
You won the NCI Agency’s Defence Innovation Challenge 2020 with two different systems. How important was this award?
It is valuable for us to strengthen our partnership with NATO, while supporting the Alliance to achieve superior forces overall. In this context, we participated in the prestigious Defence Innovation Challenge, where we competed with very innovative ideas. Winning this competition with two different solutions was a very proud moment for us, knowing that our solutions can play an essential role in the near future for our collective security. Our target is to support the NATO Alliance to extend its C2 capabilities and mission coordination to the maximum operational level.
What are the distinguishing elements in these systems?
ASELSAN has developed A-FACT and AI-Operator solutions that perform situational awareness in air defence with their unique algorithms. A-FACT not only eradicates the weaknesses
caused by radars that could lead to idle stance in the operational area, but also introduces the radar capabilities that are not currently included in the NATO radar network. In addition to creating a standard intelligent and dynamic air picture, A-FACT allows correlation and integration of both 2D and 3D radars simultaneously in the same architecture. This, in turn, creates a combined air picture, even within a densely cluttered environment, while managing the airspace. Moreover, it ensures the successful completion of operations by providing continuity against manoeuvring targets with its dynamic and adaptive motion modelling – a feat which is considered to be one of today’s most challenging tasks. Our other winning solution – the AI-Operator – basically relieves the radar operator from the burden of manually determining the optimum parameters for each radar on the entire radar network. Additionally, AI-Operator adjusts the radar parameters at speed and with accuracy, which cannot be manually achieved by any human operator. We observed a considerable increase in performance in the AI-assisted radars on our simulation tools, and, as a result, implemented this technology on one of our newest radars.
What is your future plan for NATO projects?
We start every new day with new ideas and dreams that encourage us to challenge technology boundaries.
Striving for a better planet is our constant and enduring motivation. With a never-ending contribution towards global safety and security, we support the Alliance with true dedication as a trusted partner.
As a long-lasting NATO solutionprovider, we are closely following Alliance requirements. We intend to continue our achievements by putting forward our value propositions in line with the operational requirements set forth within upcoming competitions.
