Introduction

Abstract

AbstractBusiness use of artificial intelligence (AI) can produce tremendous insights and benefits. But it can also invade privacy, perpetuate bias, and produce other harms that injure people and damage business reputation. To succeed in today’s economy, companies need to implement AI in a responsible and ethical way. The question is: How to do this? This book points the way. The authors interviewed and surveyed AI ethics managers at leading companies. They asked why these experts see AI ethics as important, and how they seek to achieve it. This book conveys the results of that research on a concise, accessible way that readers should be able to apply to their own organizations. Much of the existing writing on AI ethics focuses either on macro-level AI ethics principles, or on micro-level product design and tooling. The interviews showed that companies need a third component: data and AI ethics management. This third component consists of the management structures, processes, training and substantive benchmarks that companies use to operationalize their high-level data and AI ethics principles and to guide and hold accountable their developers. AI ethics management is the connective tissue that makes AI ethics principles real. It is the focus of this book.