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ToggleArtificial intelligence (AI) offers some exciting opportunities for your business and its consumers. It continues to drive innovative leaps in various areas, from controlling robotic systems efficiently to generating code for more inclusive websites. It can even play a role in cybersecurity, protecting companies from fraud and other threats. But it’s important not to be so enthusiastic about the possibilities that you overlook the potential risks of this technology.
There are various ethical and practical concerns with using AI in business. While this doesn’t mean you should avoid AI entirely, it’s vital to ensure that you take the time to look carefully at what the issues are so you can avoid AI disasters and responsibly adopt AI tools, to maintain your brand’s integrity, consumer confidence, and employee trust.
Minimizing Job Loss
One of the most prominent aspects of responsible AI adoption relates to how it affects your employees’ job security. There’s increasing evidence of how AI may impact the job market, with some worries about workers losing positions due to AI. However, there’s also the potential for AI platforms to improve productivity, which can increase satisfaction. For example, automation can exponentially increase productivity in many departments.
That said, certain challenges can overshadow these benefits. For instance, the algorithms used in screening candidates can be subject to programmers’ biases and discrimination. This may unfairly dictate which candidates get job opportunities. There’s also the potential for AI-driven tools to cause job displacement in roles as diverse as manual assembly to care work. Unless companies have a careful and responsible attitude toward AI, there can be significant ethical and economic implications for employees.
Adopting AI purely as a supportive tool is a responsible way to proceed. For instance, platforms could handle simple repetitive tasks that are time-consuming parts of administrative roles, such as data entry. This allows workers to focus their efforts on tasks that require their core skills, creativity, and attention. In addition to automated tools, AI can have applications in travel expense management to ensure employees are adequately compensated for their commute, as well as time tracking and other productivity enhancement tools.
The result is both improved productivity and greater work satisfaction without threatening job security.
Mitigating Bias and Misinformation
Generative AI is a powerful tool that has a range of applications. Using platforms such as ChatGPT and Bard, companies can use AI algorithms to create certain kinds of content more efficiently than human workers. Yet, these programs can hallucinate and generate false data or create biased results due to their programming. Luckily, there are a few ways to combat these issues, whether you’re designing your own tool or using a preexisting one.
When Creating Tools
In an ideal world, your company would be directly involved in programming your generative AI tools to ensure that it’s influenced by diverse professionals and isn’t fed misinformation. This may be achievable if you’re creating proprietary chatbots to handle simple customer service tasks, as you largely control the information it gathers.
If you do find yourself developing AI technology in this way, it’s important to hire a diverse group of programmers, as doing so can help eliminate biases in coding. Getting individuals with minority identities and women involved in tech can help mitigate gender inequities in the industry. You can also work with organizations like Women Who Code and the National Center for Women and Information Technology to connect with potential candidates.
When Using Existing Tools
However, having this approach isn’t possible when working with programs like ChatGPT. You can mitigate negative effects by researching how the platforms you use are programmed. From there, you can put parameters on the tool to make it work well for you.
Perhaps limit the autonomy with which generative AI performs tasks. Create a workflow in which the AI platform produces content and this is followed by a review process by experienced human staff members. They can identify anything that appears to show bias, inaccuracy, or even plagiarism and make adjustments to improve the quality of the output.
Protecting Data Sources
In addition to bias issues, security concerns are among the most significant when it comes to AI. After all, AI functions well because it can earn from huge amounts of data efficiently. And data is now an incredibly valuable resource, which can make it a target for cybercriminals. To adopt AI responsibly, you need to take measures to ensure all of your data — from company intellectual property to consumer information to wider market information — is protected.
You must be transparent with consumers about how you collect, store, and use data in the context of AI. Some consumers may be fine with data collection for marketing but have specific objections to AI. The New York Times recently filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI for unauthorized use of its data to train chatbots. Mishandling data could see your company at the receiving end of similar legal action and reputational damage.
Give consumers the information they need to make informed decisions about data usage and let them opt out if they want. This demonstrates respect for your customers, which can strengthen your relationships with them. You could also get meaningfully involved with Partnership on AI, which brings companies and individuals affected by AI together. It’s a good way to better understand the data concerns people have and establish potentially effective and ethical solutions.
On a day-to-day level, you can focus on protecting your data. Avoid giving AI tools a free run of all of your databases; only provide them with data that is necessary for functionality. You can also implement strict access control methods to your databases that prevent unauthorized personnel from feeding data to AI systems without permission. This involves encrypting the information in databases and providing keys to personnel only with senior or technical credentials.
Conclusion
AI is increasingly present in business and it’s vital to ensure your company uses it ethically. This includes minimizing the negative human impact it can have on jobs and keeping a close eye on the potential to generate misinformation, among other steps. The greater attention you pay to ethical adoption now, the greater chance there is for everyone to benefit from healthy and productive relationships with this technology.