Responsible AI: What Does It Mean for You?
As the use of artificial intelligence around the world expands and becomes more mainstream, the demands for ethical and responsible use of the technology are increasing all the time. And as these demands grow, regulators and authorities are paying more attention to AI, and are bringing in legislation to enforce responsible use in law.
Organizations that don’t meet the requirements of these rules and regulations risk severe sanctions - and no business is immune to the risks. This is why understanding what is and isn’t acceptable with AI should be a top priority for all right now.
What Challenges Are Posed by Responsible AI?
Regulation of AI use is progressing at pace around the world. In the European Union, the recently-introduced EU Artificial Intelligence Act has been implemented to ensure human rights and data privacy are protected, without stifling innovation. Penalties for non-compliance can reach up to 7% of global turnover, which potentially means fines that run into the millions and are even bigger than those levied for breaching GDPR.
Meanwhile, in the United States, at least 16 states had already put AI-related legislation in place at the time of writing, and the White House has released a blueprint AI Bill of Rights. Leaders in the field such as Google, Microsoft and OpenAI have all added to calls for greater regulation of the technology.
But it’s worth remembering that the potential impacts of non-compliance are more than legal and financial. They can cause huge reputational damage in the eyes of customers, clients and suppliers; damage employee morale and satisfaction; and even cause operational disruption if core systems are found to be non-compliant and have to be scrapped.
Balancing the Risk and Reward of AI Use
Every business that has already implemented or explored AI will know what a transformative technology it can be. AI innovation can be a huge driver of new competitive advantage and open up opportunities, from enhancing customer experiences, to driving productivity gains within the workforce.
Of course, AI technology is still in its relative infancy and many new possibilities and innovations will come in stream in the months and years ahead. This may tempt some organizations to bend or break the rules in the future to try and carve out a niche in their marketplaces. While this has worked for many businesses in the past, the advent of greater AI regulation - combined with greater public awareness about AI - means that the risk of unethical AI use now outweighs the potential rewards.
However, this doesn’t mean that businesses can’t still yield huge benefits and opportunities from AI - just that it has to be approached with a different mindset.
What’s the Best Way Forward With Responsible AI?
It is entirely possible to balance innovation with ethical use of AI - and that’s where the concept of responsible AI comes in. According to MIT, 52% of organizations are already practicing responsible AI to a certain extent, although 79% of those say that this is limited in scope, so there is plenty of room for improvement to be made.
This will enable organizations to adopt a strategic approach to AI governance, and to use best practices, so that AI applications are deployed and managed effectively and safely while mitigating risks along the way.
In our experience, implementing a responsible AI approach demands a three-step process to put all the right building blocks in place:
- A maturity assessment that establishes the current state of play
- Identifying potential areas for improvement, aligned with a selection of AI products and innovations that can deliver that improvement
- Building of a solid operational foundation through adoption of cloud and RunOps, allied to a sound data strategy such as Data Fabric
How Does the Ciklum Responsible AI Assessment Work?
Ciklum’s Responsible AI Assessment is the ideal first step on that journey. It’s a comprehensive maturity assessment that measures current AI deployments against our tried-and-tested framework, which is based on current regulation, best practice and our own experience of successful AI implementations.
We score performance against several key pillars, benchmarking the current rate of progress and identifying areas where improvements can be made. These improvements are reported on in a structured, itemized list that gives an organization actionable recommendations in order of priority.
Typical strategic initiatives that we may recommend (depending on your results) can include:
- Data modernization
- Platform modernization, such as DevOps or ML Ops
- User adoption improvements, focusing on user experience and product management
- Governance and change management alterations, such as an AI Steering Committee, or alignment with the existing CAB
- Training and education for staff, including an ‘AI Academy’
The end result of the assessment is clarity that can inform the next two stages of the process: areas for improvement, and suggested actions in order of priority.
Book Your free Assessment Today
The Ciklum Responsible AI Assessment is free of charge, and can give you crucial insights to ensure that your current and future use of AI is responsible, without compromising your ability to innovate. Contact our team to book an assessment and stay ahead of the competition!
