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.

The Linux Foundation on Monday introduced the Community Data License Agreement, a new framework for sharing large sets of data required for research, collaborative learning and other purposes. CDLAs will allow both individuals and groups to share data sets in the same way they share open source software code, the foundation said. "As systems require data to learn and evolve, no one organization can build, maintain and source all data required," noted Mike Dolan, VP of strategic programs at The Linux Foundation. "Data communities are forming around artificial intelligence and machine learning use cases, autonomous systems, and connected civil infrastructure," he told LinuxInsider. "The CDLA license agreements enable sharing data openly, embodying best practices learned over decades of sharing source code."