Risky AI business: Navigating regulatory and legal dangers to come

Artificial intelligence (AI) is cropping up everywhere in business, as organizations deploy the technology to gain insights into customers, markets and competitors, and to automate processes in almost every facet of operations. But AI presents a wide range of hidden dangers for companies, especially in areas such as regulatory compliance, law, privacy and ethics. There is little visibility into how AI and machine learning technologies come to their conclusions in solving problems or addressing a need, leaving practitioners in a variety of industries flying blind into significant business risks. The concerns are especially relevant for companies in industries such as healthcare and financial services, which have to comply with a number of government and industry regulations. "Context, ethics, and data quality are issues that affect the value and reliability of AI, particularly in highly regulated industries," says Dan Farris, co-chairman of the technology practice at law firm Fox Rothschild, and a former software engineer who focuses his legal practice on technology, privacy, data security, and infrastructure matters.