Artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed many facets of our lives and as a matter of fact it appears to have the potential to revolutionize the world, as it is capable of creating the ideal party invitation, cracking jokes, and anticipating what we want to see or say next. But while it can accomplish all of this, it's important to know that artificial intelligence has limitations and should be utilized cautiously. Don't get me wrong, there’s no problem with using artificial intelligence for recreational purposes however, when AI is employed for decision-making or is supposed to draw conclusions on its own, it can have a significant impact on the accuracy of the outcome. What do I mean? let’s first cover the basics of AI and then i’ll give some examples of how bias and ethics can compromise the integrity of artificial intelligence.
What is Artificial Intelligence
The ability of machines to imitate and mimic human responses and reactions to situations is what we refer to as artificial intelligence. By teaching machines to think like humans, we can automate tedious or repetitive tasks and use machine learning to process large amounts of data. Artificial intelligence has advanced significantly over time, but there’s still a long way to go before it can properly imitate human thinking. However, already-existing advances have transformed the way in which we view machines and their potential.
What is Bias in Artificial Intelligence
You’ll probably be thinking machines can’t have bias, right? After all, it doesn’t have experiences or memories from which it’ll form the said bias. But unfortunately, that’s not the case because machines can only learn from the data they have and if this data is biased, incomplete, or it’s of poor quality, definitely the output of the machine will reflect the same problems. To buttress my point let me give you some examples of artificial intelligence bias.
Here are some examples:
Algorithm bias: Algorithm bias happens when a computer program makes decisions based on flawed instructions, which is like following a recipe with mistakes, which will definitely lead to bad results. A biased algorithm may unfairly favor certain job candidates or deny loans to deserving people, which means if the algorithm is inaccurate the outcomes will also be incorrect and unfair.
Selection bias: You cannot just choose any data to use in your research because if you eliminate data points (intentionally or mistakenly), your results will be incorrect and misleading. Therefore using all essential data guarantees that your study findings are accurate.
There are several other ways of which bias can appear in artificial intelligence, but the few ones stated above are some of the most prominent ones. But here's what you should keep in mind: artificial intelligence learns from the data it is fed, and if that data is not accurate so will the AI's output.
How do we prevent this bias?
A lot of situations involving bias start from small or limited datasets, which means you’ve got to do everything you can to collect as much data as possible from as many sources as you can, also try diversifying your dataset.
Try to explore online fairness and bias tests to ensure that you capture everything.
As you begin to feed data into your computer, make sure you run tests in the early stages to check for biases and try to correct them.
Ensure to run your results by other experts to get their feedback, and continue to monitor the quality of your data over time.
When training AI systems, ensure you employ a diverse set of data that covers all potential circumstances. This will make the AI learn correctly and perform well in a variety of settings.
What is Ethics in Artificial Intelligence
The main importance of AI ethics is to ensure that AI is used in an ethical and fair manner, we’ve probably heard someone tell us that AI will take our job one day. But while the vast majority of jobs are safe and those that AI can take over will most definitely transition into a different role, there are serious ethical concerns to address when considering artificial intelligence.
One thing is certain, the power of artificial intelligence is massive and we’ve only just begun to explore what it can do. However, the following factors should be considered as they are absolutely crucial when it comes to maintaining proper ethics in the future of artificial intelligence:
Privacy: We're feeding machines a lot of information about individuals to make them behave more human-like, right? So how can we ensure that the data we’re giving to the machine is secure and private? One of the world's most pressing challenges right now is ensuring data privacy throughout the artificial intelligence lifecycle.
Human dependence: Artificial intelligence is capable of automating some tasks that humans were previously handling, as a matter of fact, it can handle far more data than humans. However, AI cannot be left to make decisions on its own since it can never replace human responsibility and accountability.
Sustainability: The advances in artificial intelligence and technology are encouraging, but only if they do not come at the expense of the environment or general sustainability.
Accessibility: New advancements should be made accessible worldwide for people to access, not just in highly developed countries.
Conclusion
The power of artificial intelligence is absolutely unmatched, but it is up to us to use it for good by integrating strong ethical foundations and regularly monitoring for bias, we can definitely develop AI systems that are both powerful and bias-free. Artificial intelligence specialists are sorely needed across the tech industry, so if you're interested in entering this field, look no further as there's plenty of space for progress in artificial intelligence.