“100% of organizations will be using AI by 2025,” Forrester estimates. One of the benefits of AI is that it can hopefully contain less bias than humans and none at all if programmed correctly. However, it will depend on who programs the machine learning. Humans are the ones who choose what data that the algorithms use and how the results are applied. It will require many tests from many different individuals in order to avoid unconscious biases. But what are some proper steps that programmers can take to avoid these biases? First, educate all staff on responsible AI. Second, let your audience know what you’re doing and be transparent with how your AI algorithms work to make predictions. Lastly, have a team on deck to do damage control if your audience feels that they have been unjustly treated due to AI bias. Here are some other ways to prevent AI bias:
1. Use synthetic data sets: the data from the real world can be very bias. This helps prevent that issue through using statistically representative versions of real sets.
2. Test and test and test: make sure to test models before and after. As we said above, the more eyes on these tests the better.
3. Create an industry standard for AI: have regulations and rules to creating AI algorithms. We think that some point in the near future there will be legislation implemented across the U.S. in order to keep AI in check. Until then, create a standard within your company that prevents AI bias as much as possible.
AI has some impressive potential, such as helping diagnose breast cancer & other diseases earlier. It will also help in processing loan application in banking, chatbots for any website, it will be utilized in real estate to analyze markets, property prices etc., and this list could go on forever. That being said though, it will be extremely important to prevent AI biases in algorithms because there are serious implications if not. It has the potential to harm people through deepening systemic racism, sexism, etc. Some are promoting socio-technical solutions that take into consideration social impacts of bias as well as technical. Since bias can harm humans, such as affecting whether they get a home loan or acceptance into a school, it’s important to program in the societal and systemic impacts that biases can have. We couldn’t agree more with this strategy. Although we still have a long road ahead of us, we’re confident that our country will do its best to regulate AI in the coming years.
