The explosive growth in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) brings new tools into the hands of business leaders, schools, and individuals. It provides improved potential for workflow and creativity, but it has also opened up questions about how it is used.
The Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce’s July Third Thursday Business Builder focused on “Minds and Machines: Advancing Ethics in AI.” Led by Matthew Jay, CEO of PC Techware, Inc., the session looked at guidelines to keep AI use transparent and ethical.
“I know when I say ethics, everybody’s got a little bit of a different definition of what that actually means, or what that looks like,” said Jay, pointing to the possibility of using exclusively ChatGPT-created content. “Be demanding from the vendors that we buy from, with regards to transparency, or if they’re using AI in their solution to deliver an answer. Can I see under the hood on how that’s being formulated to ensure there’s no biases being baked in, and then if I need to, I need to intervene. So, ethics is a little bit of everything when it comes to AI applications.”
The importance of ethical use of AI is particularly timely. Earlier this month, the Georgia Chamber Foundation released its Q2 report, examining Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the impact on the state’s economy.
The report finds Georgia’s economy is thriving under research and development efforts, scientific research, and technological innovation. That is unlikely to decrease with at least 64% of the state’s business executives increasing investments in AI technologies over the next three years.
Jay said that makes it important to look at policies for incorporating AI and how to use it ethically.
“It’s better to talk about it now before people invest and go down the wrong road and have to revamp and or you’ve gotten your client’s information out there,” he explained. “So, we need some sort of standardization, at least, to give someone some kind of a compass. The thing about entrepreneurs is they’re decisive. They want to make a decision, but having the right information in front of you so that you can make a better, more informed decision is key.”
As a managed IT service company, Jay said their focus leans toward cyber security, asset management, and infrastructure; however, they can also help a business navigate AI.
“It’s kind of a natural conversation, because a lot of the fundamental things we do, from an IT and cyber security standpoint, overlap and parallel things, concerns and fears on the AI side,” he said. “Things around data protection and privacy. That’s what we’ve been doing since we started, is making sure that was safe, but the conversation is still relevant on the AI side.”
Jay has created a roadmap called CLEAR-AI. It is an ethical framework for using AI. Its five-pronged approach opens conversations to examine different concepts and themes of AI. The goal is to open the dialogue on the ethical use of AI.
More information about PC Techware’s programs is available at https://pctechware.com/.
