Responsible AI in an Organization

Focus Area: Organizational - Responsible AI
Student’s Name
Institution
Course Number and Name
Instructor’s Name
Date
Focus Area: Organizational - Responsible AI
One of the key ethical issues surrounding technology organizations in 2023 is responsible AI, which is a set of principles that ensure AI technologies are accountable, ethical, and transparent (Mikalefet al, 2022). The year has seen a rapid rise in the development of AI technologies, with ChatGPT being a major highlight. Although the development of AI is instrumental in shaping human lives, it is associated with a dark side as it can be used for malicious intent. As reported by Roose (2023), a group of leaders in the industry in May issued a warning in an open letter that AI can cause human extinction. AI is also faulted for spreading propaganda and misinformation and eliminating millions of jobs. In essence, as technology organizations seek to improve their operations with the development of AI, they face the challenge of ensuring it is responsible. When Microsoft laid off all employees tasked with ensuring responsibility for AI tools, it raised the question of whether the company was concerned about the potential negative effects of AI (Schiffer & Newton, 2023). This paper examines the ethical issue of responsible AI, its dark side, and what organizations in the technology sector can do to ensure the ethical use of AI.
Importance of Responsible AI
As AI becomes prevalent in the technology industry, its responsible use becomes essential, given its dark side. As mentioned before, a group of leaders in the industry warned that AI could result in human extinction. In addition, as informed by Roose (2023), AI can also become a tool for propaganda and misinformation. According to Campbell and Kleinman (2023), predicting how transformative technologies such as AI could drive and multiply human rights abuses worldwide is almost impossible. A case example is the spyware deployed in mobile phones of human rights defenders and journalists for 24-hour surveillance (Campbell & Kleinman, 2023). In essence, the rapid growth of AI calls for its responsible use to prevent potential harm.
Adopting AI technologies has become an element of competition among technology giants, meaning immense growth in the coming years is inevitable. According to Haan (2023), it is expected that AI will experience a growth rate of 37.3% annually from 2023 to 2030, which emphasizes a significant dependence on the technology in the coming years. With ChatGTP reaching 1 million users within five days of its launch, AI is revolutionizing the technology industry. The high adoption rate of AI technology by companies and users means that responsible use is necessary to prevent any potential harm. Therefore, the value of responsible AI in this in this age of technology is invaluable. As companies compete to develop the latest technologies, ensuring its responsibility should be mandatory.
Responsible AI can help organizations mitigate legal and ethical risks. It is no doubt that as companies increasingly develop and employ responsible AI, they face new legal and ethical risks. As Holland (2023) pointed out, AI developers are increasingly facing lawsuits due to the outputs of the technologies. Given that the process of acquiring and deploying data by AI can result in bias, organizations that seek to thrive and protect their reputation have to consider practicing responsible AI.
Dark Side of AI
Delving deeper into the dark side of AI is integral to understanding the risks companies face with the development and adoption of associated technologies. When a group of AI experts call for mitigation of its negative impacts, it emphasizes the gravity of the matter. AI systems can cause discrimination based on the dataset used to train its algorithm. As Wirtz et al. (2020) pointed out, if the dataset used in training an AI algorithm does not constitute an accurate reflection of the real world, the AI can learn and produce false prejudices. This can result in discrimination when AI is used to perform decisions such as hiring and loan applications.
Apart from bias and discrimination, AI technologies raise further privacy concerns, given that they have the ability to gather data about people's lives. As noted by Cheng et al. (2022), payment systems that use facial recognition carry significant privacy risks because of the many pieces of personal information such as age, gender, and appearance that one’s face carries. When consumers learn that their personal information is collected and is at risk of being misused, they may distrust a company's product and shift their loyalty to competitors. There is, thus, a significant risk of reputation ruin if a company does not take measures to ensure its AI products are responsible. As noted by Cheng et al. (2022), even chatbots that do not perform according to consumers' expectations can jeopardize a company's reputation.
The development and deployment of AI technologies by malicious actors pose a significant threat to human life. With experts warning that AI can result in human extinction, there is a risk that the current civilization could end courtesy of AI. While it is not clear how this can happen, the rapid development of AI and the presence of malicious actors in the world means there is a chance of its occurrence.
Position
The position taken by over 1000 technology leaders and researchers in March 2023 who called for a pause in the development of powerful AI systems is arguably the best way to go (Future of L...