Balancing Ethics and Accountability in Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been integrated into almost all aspects of our daily lives including, but not limited to, education, healthcare, finance and transportation. While there are undeniably positive benefits associated with utilizing AI, there are also numerous ethical dilemmas associated with AI implementation, which require ethical governance and guiding principles. Guiding principles look at specific aspects of AI ethics, including fairness, transparency and respect for privacy and human rights. Without proper governance and ethics, AI will inadvertently cause harm to people, perpetuate bias and reduce accountability. As AI technology progresses through the decision-making process, establishing liability/ownership for problems arising from use of AI will be necessary. Developers, organizations and users of AI all must understand their respective relationships and responsibilities when it comes to AI. An effective accountability framework requires clearly defined policies, monitored usage, meaningful human oversight in decision-making and trust between organisations and their users. Defining accountabilities will streamline the resolution of errors in AI operation and ultimately provide the mechanism to both protect users and ensure that AI is utilised for beneficial purposes. Moral governance combined with accountability constitutes the base of the framework required to develop safe and trustworthy Artificial Intelligence systems that mitigate risk while safeguarding people and enabling Artificial Intelligence to play a valuable role in developing social and economic progress. This document examines the role of ethics and accountability in promoting the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence in today’s digital environment. In doing so, this document provides insight on how society can leverage the benefits of Artificial Intelligence advancements while ensuring that technology is developed in accordance with human values.