AI: The Black Box of Today’s Technological Innovations

With AI taking over the zeitgeist, you’re probably wondering what the big deal is and how you can use it for your business. That said, AI is far from infallible: you can experience issues with your AI models. We’re not just talking about operational problems; we’re talking about the value and validity of its responses to your queries.

Let’s look into the topic of AI bias, discrimination, and other ways AI use can go awry.

What is AI Bias and Discrimination?

AI systems rely on the data they are fed to provide you with results, but what happens when that data reflects societal prejudices?

It’s been well-researched and reported that AI can take on the biases of any data it’s trained on, and if it’s using a lot of that data, these prejudices can be amplified. For example, AI can unfairly deny loans to people based on their ZIP code, have a higher error rate for facial recognition for darker-skinned individuals, and create racially biased predictive policing in healthcare models. These issues only feed into systemic social and economic inequality.

There’s another famous case of an Amazon recruiting algorithm discriminating against women, with the reason being that it was trained on historical data—data that came from male engineers. The model penalized and filtered out qualified candidates all because they identified as female on their application.

Now imagine how much damage can be done to any organization that relies too heavily on biased systems such as these. Not only would these organizations become subject to public scrutiny, but it could also lead to serious reputational harm and loss of consumer trust.

Much of the problem here is that even AI engineers cannot fully explain how or why AI models come to the conclusions they make; and even if they could, those systems might be fiercely protected, as proprietary systems often are. It all leads to too much opportunity for businesses to use AI in all the wrong ways.

If left unchecked, LLMs can provide false information, or hallucinations, where the model just makes stuff up out of nowhere. Imagine what would happen if this information were relied on in high-stakes scenarios, like a court case or a medical diagnosis. It’s unnerving, to say the least.

Businesses have much to consider in the realm of accountability. If an overreliance on AI leads to an error, liability becomes that much more complicated, especially since there is a lack of transparency on the AI system’s part. What ends up happening is that businesses are trusting blindly in AI, which creates more opportunity for them to fail without the appropriate oversight.

While AI is celebrated for its ability to enhance efficiency, a very real side-effect is that jobs can be eliminated, especially if the roles involve repetitive tasks that can be automated. Sure, AI can create new jobs in response, but those who are most at risk of losing their jobs don’t have the skills or expertise to step into these new roles, which leads to even more socioeconomic inequality.

The takeaway is simple: the AI giveth, and the AI taketh away. As AI becomes easier to use, it’s worth remembering that anyone can use it, even the bad guys. For example, the number of cyberattacks has significantly increased, which in turn leads to more successful phishing scams and more vulnerabilities discovered in systems. All of this serves to fuel the fire further.

Who is Responsible for AI, Anyway?

While the risks that AI poses might seem like cause to step back, we feel that instead, it should be a call for organizations to step up both during the development and deployment phases to mitigate this risk. Businesses and developers alike need to train systems on diverse sets of data to proactively identify and correct biases and prejudices as they arise. These organizations must also establish regulations that can help determine responsibility should AI systems fail or cause harm to others.

Remember, AI is only as good as the data it’s trained on. It’s worth reflecting on how we as users can use it in an ethical, fair, and safe way.

Accucom has its finger on the pulse of the AI industry, so if you want more information on how your business can implement AI safely and efficiently, give us a call at (02) 8825-5555.