The Path to Fairer AI Starts With Audits, Standards

Ethical principles aren't enough to defend against the worst potential impacts of artificial intelligence systems and the time has come for the U.S. to establish official legal policies for this emerging technology, said policy and technology experts during a recent report launch event from New America's Open Technology Institute. That work requires clearly defining terms and enforcement measures, and speakers sought to propose mechanisms that can help government promote fairness, accountability and transparency (FAT) in algorithmic systems, as well as outline the challenges that lie ahead. They called for the federal government to regulate how private firms like online content platforms develop and leverage AI as well as establish formal policies for overseeing and vetting the algorithmic systems public agencies adopt and purchase. Such AI audits are currently voluntary, said Spandana Singh, policy analyst at the Open Technology Institute and co-author of the report. AI can deliver newfound efficiencies, extract meaning from troves of data and deliver a variety of other benefits, but the complexity, opacity and lack of foresight in some of these systems means they can be designed, implemented or evolve in ways that produce biased and discriminatory effects.