company in San Jose, California. “Even with all the amazing advantages that AI is capable of delivering, there is still the need to obtain greater transparency into the actual working and decision-making mechanism of AI and specify clear ethical guidelines regarding what the AI should and shouldn’t be allowed to do.” Like many in the tech industry who are considering how AI will inevitably change the way we do business, Agrawal is aware of serious ramifications within even the most promising technological advances. In fact, CIS has taken this a step further by implementing its own ethical checklist as it develops tools that already leverage
popular applications related to machine learning, robotics and natural language processing for AI systems. “When we are thinking about solving a business problem, no matter what industry vertical it pertains to, ethics is certainly one of the most important factors that we consider during the solution development process,” Agrawal said. “It is also one of the areas that we clearly discuss with our clients prior to and during the development.” For Agrawal, the bottom line is that ethical adherence is important for an AI solution to be viable over the long term. Key considerations often hinge on things like consumer privacy, cybersecurity concerns and digital data management, especially as AI becomes more familiar and useful to consumers worldwide. “AI is one of the most trending technologies today in the IT industry,” said Agrawal. "But what’s even more interesting is how AI is now being connected with other technologies, like blockchain and IoT.” For the technology to be a success, according to Agrawal, ultimately it will be necessary to eliminate the possibility of mistakes, accidents, unpredictable consequences or biases.
Safety, Privacy and Quantifiable Success Ethical questions have long pervaded the tech
industry’s development of new solutions with fierce debates swirling around everything frommobile phones to automation. Like with any burgeoning technology with a great deal of potential to create social change, AI inspires just as many questions as it does accolades. What makes AI particularly notable is the extent to which these questions are taking place in both the consumer and the enterprise arenas. According to Seth Robinson, senior director of technology analysis at CompTIA, “One of the prime examples of AI today is the virtual assistant. This is actually true in both the consumer space and the
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CompTIAWorld | FALL 2019
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