As artificial intelligence continues to advance at breakneck speed, its impact on society grows increasingly significant. From the potential to exacerbate issues like bias and discrimination to pressing privacy and transparency concerns, the ethical implications of AI simply can’t be ignored. That’s why last week, Udacity brought together leading experts for an eye-opening conversation, ‘Let’s Talk AI Ethics: Panel Discussion with AI Experts’. This webinar explored AI’s nuanced ethical landscape, covering critical challenges we must address to ensure it promotes equitable outcomes while safeguarding basic human rights. Whether or not you were able to attend live, read on for a high-level recap of the key points covered – and be sure to watch the full recording to dive even deeper into the material.
About The Panelists
Stacey Ann Berry
Stacey Ann Berry is an author, entrepreneur, and public policy professional. She provides thought leadership on the impact of technology on marginalized communities and human rights, and civil liberties. She has a master’s in public policy administration and law as well as, an Honors BA from York University. She also has a diploma in Court and Tribunal Administration from Seneca College.
Take Stacey’s Udacity course, AI Governance, Policy, and the Public Good, here: https://bit.ly/49IldVW
Follow Stacey on LinkedIn here.
Ria Cheruvu
Ria is an AI Software Architect and technical lead. She has a master’s in data science from Harvard University and is an accomplished industry speaker and instructor. She formerly served as Intel NEX’s AI Ethics Lead Architect, leading trustworthy AI product creation, and as a Teaching Fellow for Harvard Data Science. Ria has multiple patents and publications on AI and ethics, and enjoys contributing to open-source communities to advance innovation.
Take Ria’s Udacity course, Discovering Ethical AI, here: https://bit.ly/4cV6EBn
Follow Ria on LinkedIn here.
Dr. Ed Wiley
Dr. Ed Wiley is a high-visibility senior executive with 25 years of building, leading, and advising world-class machine learning, AI, and data science teams & projects at companies at stages from startup to Fortune 50. An active member of the AI & data science communities, Ed regularly presents at national and international conferences and workshops.
Take Ed’s Udacity course, Generative AI For Business Leaders, here: https://bit.ly/3vqbc1p
Follow Dr. Ed Wiley on LinkedIn here.
Key Discussion Points
Here are just a handful of the topics we discussed during the webinar, along with teasers on the responses from our expert panelists. Watch the full webinar to hear more.
- How Do You Define Ethical AI? Ria discusses the importance of going beyond just the technical definition of AI, and into the social impact, fairness, and sustainability concerns of the technology as well. Stacey explains her hesitation around institutions using AI for surveillance purposes, and the problems that have arisen because of this.
- How Do We Scale Ethical AI In Development? Ed elaborates on how crucial it is for companies to step up and become innovators in the ethical AI space, and how they can get started. He goes into detail about his own concerns regarding how many of the current foundation models have questionable IP lineage.
- What Are Some Ethical AI Success Metrics? Ria touches on the danger of relying solely on metrics to determine ethics in AI, but that some frameworks like model cards within traditional programming are great places to start.
- How Do We Enforce Ethical AI In Public Policy? Stacey pitches her recommendation of appointing a nonpartisan, ethical AI commissioner to ensure there are adequate checks and balances in both the private and public sector when it comes to deploying AI.
- What Challenges Have You Personally Faced In Terms of Ethical AI? Ed discusses a consulting client he had who was considering using a foundation model that was known to be questionable in terms of IP lineage, and what he advised her to do instead.
- What Role Does AI Regulation Play In Ethical AI? Stacey details the strides being made across governmental bodies around the globe, and how we can improve these regulations to ensure ethics remain at the forefront of AI.
- What Are Some Common Ethical AI Pitfalls? Ria talks through the challenges of the current ethical AI landscape, how each problem unveils dozens more, and why it’s critical to navigate and prioritize them with care.
- What Are Some Ethical AI Job Opportunities? Stacey details how the space is booming in terms of job opportunities, and why the best place to start is where you’re already at.
Ready To Join The Ethical AI Conversation?
The development of AI demands we wrestle with complex ethical issues that will shape the technology’s impact on society for generations to come. From mitigating bias in foundation models to protecting data privacy, solving AI’s ethical challenges requires input from diverse perspectives and experts.
If you missed this thought-provoking discussion live, we encourage you to watch the full recording and continue educating yourself on the nuances of the AI ethics landscape. And for a limited time (until May 10th, 2024), Udacity is making “Discovering Ethical AI” and three other Discovery Courses free, providing a great opportunity to learn more about what we can do to ensure AI promotes equitable outcomes for everyone. The future of this powerful technology is still being shaped – let’s be part of the solution together.
