Last week, Serve Legal Directors Jenni and Seth attended Salesforce’s Ethical AI (Innovation Series) Event. This event brought together leading minds in technology, speakers and panellists from Salesforce, IBM, BT and Scope to discuss the challenges of ensuring AI is fair and accessible for all.
The scope for AI technology is endless and we have a real opportunity to design AI solutions that deliver more equal and fair services than the conscious and unconscious biases that the real world contends with. Discussions to bring AI into industries such as Supermarkets has already begun, with the sector considering how the technology could be used to support staff in delivering age verification checks on customers purchasing restricted products. The datasets utilised by developers must be diverse and truly representative for all communities. The key to achieving this, is having the right data for AI to learn from. Salesforce speakers commented how businesses will often jump to applying AI into their operations without fully considering the consequences on staff and customers. It is therefore imperative that the appropriate due diligence checks are performed ahead of implementation.
When discussing the development of AI technologies, speakers from Scope (Disability Equality Charity) made the analogy of trying remove an ingredient from a cake once its been baked. Once an algorithm has learnt biases, it is difficult for them to be removed. This is why we believe it is important for developing technologies to be thoroughly audited, from the get go, to ensure no biases of age, gender, ability or race – ensuring AI technology will be suitable for all. Guests at the event were also reminded of the importance of regular and routine testing for AI technology. Product creation for AI technologies does not follow the linear routine of design – pilot – implement as many other technologies do. Instead, AI technology demands continual testing to ensure the same high standards of both efficiency and fairness are met, consistently.
At Serve Legal we are utilising our vast auditor community of highly engaged and diverse young people to support the development of age estimation AI technology. Our robust framework helps providers 100% independently demonstrate the accuracy and fairness of their models - a necessity for developers looking to demonstrate their due diligence in this vastly growing industry.
For more information about how the Serve Legal team can support your business' journey implementing fair and accessible AI technology, click here or get in touch with our team at businessenquiries@servelegal.co.uk.
