Ask a Data Ethicist:
In last month’s column, I asked readers to send in their “big questions” when it comes to data and AI. This month’s question more than answered that call! It encompasses the enormous areas of trust in AI tools and explainability.
How can we know if an AI tool is delivering an ethical result if we have no idea how it is getting to its answers?
Before we get to directly answering the question, there are a few important things to touch on first:
AI Is Not One Thing
There are a whole range of technologies australia whatsapp number data being marketed under the umbrella of AI – everything from facial recognition technologies using computer vision to recommendation systems to large language model chatbot-type tools like ChatGPT, to name just a few. The specific ways in which these technologies work and what they are used for plays into the question of explainability and trust. Generally speaking, machine learning involves finding patterns in a lot of data in order to produce a result or output. There are a host of general ethical concerns related to that process. However, to fully address the question we should attempt to be as specific as we can about which AI tool we are discussing.
Ethics in Context
Similar to the term AI, ethics also covers a whole range of issues and depending on the particular situation, certain ethical concerns can become more or less prominent. To use an extreme example, most people will care less about their privacy in a life and death situation. In a missing person situation, the primary concern is locating that person. This might involve using every means possible to find them, including divulging a lot of personal information to the media. However, when the missing person is located, all of the publicity about the situation should be removed. The ethical question now centers on ensuring the story doesn’t follow the victim throughout their life, introducing possible stigma. In this example, the ethical thing to do completely shifts in light of the contextual circumstances.