Chapter 8
ETHICAL AND LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS IN AI
Definition :
The legal and ethical issues that confront society due to Artificial Intelligence (AI) include
privacy and surveillance, bias or discrimination, and potentially the philosophical challenge
is the role of human judgment.
AI ethics is a system of moral principles and techniques intended to inform the
development and responsible use of artificial intelligence technology.
As AI has become integral to products and services, organizations are starting to develop
AI codes of ethics.
An AI code of ethics, also called an AI value platform, is a policy statement that formally
defines the role of artificial intelligence as it applies to the continued development of the
human race.
The purpose of an AI code of ethics is to provide stakeholders with guidance when faced
Cont’d
AI ethics is concerned with the important question of how human developers,
manufacturers and operators should behave in order to minimize the ethical
harms that can arise from AI in society, either arising from poor (unethical)
design, inappropriate application or misuse.
The scope of AI ethics spans immediate, here-and-now concerns about, for
instance, data privacy and bias in current AI systems; near- and medium-term
concerns about, for instance, the impact of AI and robotics on jobs and the
workplace; and longer-term concerns about the possibility of AI systems
reaching or exceeding human-equivalent capabilities (so-called
superintelligence).
Privacy, human rights and dignity
AI will have profound impacts on privacy in the next decade.
The privacy and dignity of AI users must be carefully considered when designing service,
care and companion robots, as working in people's homes mean they will be privy to
intensely private moments (such as bathing and dressing). However, other aspects of AI will
also affect privacy.
Technology raises issues that go to the heart of fundamental human rights protections
like privacy and freedom of expression.
These issues intensify responsibility for tech companies that create these products.
In our view, they also call for thoughtful government regulation and for the development of
norms around acceptable uses.'
Privacy and data rights
• AI is already affecting privacy is via Intelligent Personal Assistants (IPA) such as Amazon's
Echo, Google's Home and Apple's Siri.
• Technology is now at the stage where long- term records can be kept on anyone who produces
storable data anyone with bills, contracts, digital devices, or a credit history, not to mention
any public writing and social media use.
• Digital records can be searched using algorithms for pattern recognition, meaning that we
have lost the default assumption of anonymity by obscurity.
• Any one of us can be identified by facial recognition software or data mining of our shopping
or social media habits. These online habits may indicate not just our identity, but our political
or economic predispositions, and what strategies might be effective for changing these
• Machine learning allows us to extract information from data and discover new patterns, and is
able to turn seemingly innocuous data into sensitive, personal data.
Human rights
AI has important repercussions for democracy, and people's right to a private life
and dignity.
AI can be used to determine people's political beliefs, then individuals in our
society might become susceptible to manipulation.
Political strategists could use this information to identify which voters are likely to
be persuaded to change party affiliation, or to increase or decrease their probability
of turning out to vote, and then to apply resources to persuade them to do so.
Such a strategy has been alleged to have significantly affected the outcomes of
recent elections in the UK and USA.
Surveillance
• 'Networks of interconnected cameras provide constant surveillance over many
metropolitan cities.
• In the near future, vision-based drones, robots and wearable cameras may expand
this surveillance to rural locations and one's own home, places of worship, and even
locations where privacy is considered sacrosanct, such as bathrooms and changing
rooms.
• As the applications of robots and wearable cameras expand into our homes and
begin to capture and record all aspects of daily living, we begin to approach a world
in which all, even bystanders, are being constantly observed by various cameras
wherever they go'.
Freedom of speech
• Freedom of speech and expression is a fundamental right in
democratic societies.
• This could be profoundly affected by AI.
• AI has been widely touted by technology companies as a
solution to problems such as hate speech, violent extremism and
digital misinformation.
AI biases
AI is created by humans, which means it can be susceptible to bias
Systematic bias may arise as a result of the data used to train systems, or as a
result of values held by system developers and users.
It most frequently occurs when machine learning applications are trained on
data that only reflect certain demographic groups, or which reflect societal
biases.
A number of cases have received attention for promoting unintended social
bias, which has then been reproduced or automatically reinforced by AI
systems.
Examples of AI bias
• The investigative journalism organization ProPublica showed that COMPAS, a
machine learning based software deployed in the US to assess the probability
of a criminal defendant re-offending, was strongly biased against black
Americans.
• The COMPAS system was more likely to incorrectly predict that black
defendants would reoffend, while simultaneously, and incorrectly, predicting
the opposite in the case of white defendants.
Implications
• As many machine-learning models are built from human-generated data, human biases can easily
result in a skewed distribution in training data.
• Unless developers work to recognize and counteract these biases, AI applications and products
may perpetuate unfairness and discrimination.
• AI that is biased against particular groups within society can have far-reaching effects. Its use in
law enforcement or national security, for example, could result in some demographics being
unfairly imprisoned or detained.
• Using AI to perform credit checks could result in some individuals being unfairly refused loans,
making it difficult for them to escape a cycle of poverty.
• If AI is used to screen people for job applications or university admissions it could result in entire
sections of society being disadvantaged.
AI and the future of work
• It explores the appropriate uses of AI in various domains, including healthcare,
environmental conservation, education, customer service, and social good.
• It emphasizes the potential benefits of AI, such as improving diagnostics,
personalizing patient treatments, addressing environmental challenges, enhancing
education through personalized learning, revolutionizing customer service with
chatbots and virtual assistants, and driving social impact and humanitarian efforts.
• However, it also stresses the need for responsible and ethical integration of AI,
with considerations for transparency, ongoing research and development, and
mitigation of risks to ensure that AI serves as a tool for the betterment of society.
Cont’d
• Looking to the future is both exciting and daunting.
• Technology is changing the way we live and work so rapidly that it can be difficult to imagine the
future careers of our children or even what our next job might be.
• To prepare our kids for the future, education experts say we need to teach them skills in early
childhood for life in the digital age: how to sift through and critically assess the surplus of
information, problem solve, and be resilient when faced with fast-moving change.
• But we're also living and working longer, and change is coming by the decade.
• Artificial intelligence is already poised to transform some industries and professions with
algorithms capable of detecting skin cancer as well as dermatologists and mastering music like an
audio engineer.
• Artificial intelligence has provoked deep questions of what makes us human.
• More directly, as technology infiltrates the workplace, it is also influencing what skills and
Appropriate Uses of AI
Healthcare Advancements
Environmental Conservation
Education and Skill Development
Enhanced Customer Service
Social Good and Humanitarian Efforts