Whether you could barely wait for artificial intelligence become mainstream or you are someone who dreaded that day ever since the inception of AI, the fact of the matter is that AI is here to stay. The technology is readily available to anyone who wishes to use it, including the general public.
But the main focus for you, as a business owner, should be how you are going to control the ethics and application of AI within your company. As you think about this, you should consider the effects on your brand and your company’s reputation if you fail to use AI wisely.
Five tips to guide you as you develop AI policies and procedures
Looking for guidance when it comes to using AI for business purposes? Here you go!
1. Always fact-check information outputted by AI tools
Take the time to check the facts and ensure that any AI-created content is truthful. AI tools can generate ideas and write copy for you, but these tools are not capable of fact-checking the content that they produce.
If you don’t look into the claims made by AI-generated content, you might end up publishing dishonest or untrue material that will negatively influence the public’s perception of your company, and that’s hard to come back from, so it’s best to avoid this outcome in the first place.
2. Analyze your company’s use of AI, both internally and externally
Make sure you review every AI-related system or process — both internally and externally — to keep everything under control. This includes an array of tasks regarding the algorithms backing AI tools.
When it comes to everything from testing and training to validating and updating AI tools, it’s important that you keep an eye out for conscious and unconscious human bias while you’re at it.
You should also communicate with your employees and provide them with ongoing training regarding AI tools, such as how to use them properly and what they can or cannot use AI tools for.
Monitoring data input and implementing data security measures are two other ways you can keep your company’s use of AI tools in check. Last but not least, make sure your business is in compliance with legal matters related to discrimination, bias, copyright law, intellectual property infringements and libel.
3. Monitor machine learning models and make regular adjustments
Monitor your AI tools, and adjust them as needed. Things are always changing, and if you don’t regularly update your company’s AI models, you could end up grappling with undesirable inconsistencies, which will result in devastating consequences.
4. Remain compliant with all AI-related rules and regulations
Stay in compliance with rules and regulations — both existing and pending — especially laws related to the jurisdictions in which your business operates.
5. Establish a standard of ethics for AI use
If you start using AI tools as part of your business, it is vital that you set ethical standards by which your AI tools must abide. Otherwise, failing to implement a formal code of AI ethics could pose problems relating to discriminatory practices
Four areas to pay close attention to
Among the many areas to keep in mind, these four are probably the most important:
- Discrimination
- Data privacy
- Transparency
- Human oversight
Discrimination
Given the nature of AI tools, bias can inadvertently be built into an algorithm. For example, facial recognition is a prime example of an AI tool that inherently incorporates bias.
While it may not seem dangerous to use discriminatory AI algorithms to recognize faces, biased AI systems can be used determine the level of health care that somebody receives, and this can result in seriously harmful consequences, especially in instances of implicit bias.
Data privacy
Even without the use of AI, policies and procedures pertaining to the protection of customer data are key, especially when it comes to how private information is collected, used and stored. However, this is just as important for scenarios involving AI tools.
An example of the implementation of a data privacy policy is notifying candidates or applicants that AI tools access the data they submit when responding to job function opportunities. That said, people who hold higher positions within your company — such as a supervisor — should be able to access more sensitive information, but other employees — such as customer service representatives — should not be able to, and this should be disclosed in the data privacy policy.
Transparency
They say honesty is the best policy, and while it may sound cliche, it still rings true, particularly when incorporating AI in the workplace. It’s imperative that you notify clients and consumers that AI is utilized by your company. As an example, allowing access to information about the AI’s decision-making process is a way of being transparent with your clientele.
Human oversight
Just like humans, AI makes mistakes. This essentially stems from the fact that AI tools can only work with preexisting information. In other words, AI is merely capable of gathering and organizing information using its preprogrammed algorithm.
Likewise, AI cannot determine the difference between factual information and fictitious details. So while AI tools are very advanced and reliable, they should be monitored via human oversight. This is the best way to ensure that the information outputted by AI is true, honest and in alignment with your brand.