AI, Algorithms and Ethics

Increasing reliance on algorithms and artificial intelligence recently raised concerns among the public opinion as it tends to reproduce mankind's negative tendencies and bias (Mock, 2016). In September, Airbnb faced accusations of discrimination and consequently revised its algorithm and started to shape its new anti-discrimination policy (Clarke, 2016; ibid.).More recently, Facebook fake news scandals illustrated the social network's inability to regulate contents published on its platform (Cellan-Jones, 2016).

While news feeds are slowly becoming Echo Chambers, steering us toward articles that reflect our preferences and opinions, reducing opportunities to confront point of views (NPR, 2016), it seems reasonable to ask ourselves about the establishments of ethical rules and moral values in relation to artificial intelligence and algorithms. 

Who will establish the rules by which our cars drive, our hospitals sort our patients? Is that effort shared by global citizens or is it to be determined by a minority?

While the recent common effort of tech giants led to a "Partnership on AI", a long process is on its way (PartnershiponAI, 2016; Mannes, 2016). Even though, tech companies took the lead in setting these rules governing AI and algorithms, the responsibility is shared by the whole society (Satell , 2016).

Please, do not hesitate to comment or leave feedback in the comment section.

Note: This is not intended to be an extensive article on the topic but only a succinct introduction to the ethical dilemma and challenges posed by AI and algorithms.

References:

Cellan-Jones, R., 2016 Facebook, fake news and the meaning of truth. BBC News. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38106131 (Accessed 29 November 2016).

Clarke, K., 2016 Does Airbnb Enable Racism? The New York Times. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/opinion/how-airbnb-can-fight-racial-discrimination.html (Accessed 29 November 2016).

Mannes, J., 2016, Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft come together to create the Partnership on AI | TechCrunch Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/28/facebook-amazon-google-ibm-and-microsoft-come-together-to-create-historic-partnership-on-ai/ (Accessed 29 November 2016).

Mock, B., Fixing the Sharing Economy’s Discrimination Problem Available at: http://www.citylab.com/tech/2016/11/can-the-sharing-economy-root-out-racism/508940/ (Accessed 29 November 2016).

NPR, The Reason Your Feed Became An Echo Chamber — And What To Do About It Available at: http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/07/24/486941582/the-reason-your-feed-became-an-echo-chamber-and-what-to-do-about-it (Accessed 29 November 2016).

PartnershiponAI, 2016, Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society Available at: https://www.partnershiponai.org/ (Accessed 29 November 2016).

Satell, G., 2016, Teaching an Algorithm to Understand Right and Wrong Available at: https://hbr.org/2016/11/teaching-an-algorithm-to-understand-right-and-wrong (Accessed 29 November 2016).