Alastair Lumley – Account Director, Netpremacy
A new year brings new trends and motives. Be that your own personal ambition to cut down on alcohol for January or not eating meat. Whether it’s to get out and exercise more or whether it’s career progression, we all have aspirations at the start of the year…..and so does the tech industry.
One of the big topics this year I can see having sat on a number of webinars and read numerous blogs is Ai but more importantly the ethical use of Ai.
Ai is becoming such a big part of what we do, whether it’s generating a personal suggestion stream on Netflix….or deciding if your credit rating is good enough to provide a loan. This is why it’s as important as ever to ensure that it’s used in an ethical and correct way. There are boundaries we need to set when using Ai, and these need to be understood correctly and adhered to. So much work has been done globally to improve equality, we need to ensure that everything we do meets this standard.
What is Ai?
Ai can be defined as:
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A computer or a robot controlled by a computer being able to perform similar tasks as any other highly intelligent living being
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Simulation of human intelligence processes by computers which includes learning, logical reasoning, or problem-solving
If used correctly it can have a number of benefits:
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Offering better Customer Service through tailored, personal recommendations
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Protecting business through analysing historical data & mistakes and using technology to learn from those mistakes
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Automate the manual process and improve operational efficiency
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Reducing Human Error improving results & outcomes
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Holding us all accountable based on the data!
If you would like to learn more on Ai, we’ve created a White Paper that goes into a deep dive on the subject.
Ai in Fintech
If we look at the Financial Industry and how Ai can be applied, it really opens us up to some great products which is why the Fintech industry is thriving and one of the most exciting to be involved in.
Use Cases for Ai in Finance :
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Fraud Detection: Analyse anomalies against historical data to detect fraudulent activity both for the business and consumer
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Credit Scoring: More accurately provide a credit rating improving the application process resulting in more reliable & accurate decisions
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Personalised Products: Can we use Ai to offer personalised financial advice based on our spending patterns, age, salary etc..
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Focused Saving: Using Ai to generate automatic savings based on our spending patterns.
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Business Protection: Are we taking on customers who are a risk?
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These aren’t necessarily new use cases and by no means an exhaustive list, some are already being executed extremely well by the major players in Fintech but also up and comers as well. However with such a broad range of use cases and its increasing involvement in one of the most integral industries, surely we need to make sure Ai is being used in an ethical way?
So what is Ethical Ai & how do we ensure we are using it correctly?
Ethical Ai is pretty much what it says on the tin, Ai that adheres to certain rules, responsibilities & accountability to ensure the decisions it makes & the suggestions it produces are free from bias and unethical thinking, making sound & accurate decisions that have a benefit.
We have to remember the power technology now has, how much of an influential part of society it has now become, and ultimately how much we need to control it. It’s therefore important to ensure as we develop these Ai algorithms & machine learning models, they are based on sound ethics and principles to ensure they are not biased, prejudiced or operating unfairly.
Fortunately, a lot of research has been done into Ethical Ai & principles to stick to, and as a Google Cloud Premier Partner we learn from the best, from people who are at the forefront of innovation.
Google has a number of pages that go into ethical AI and the principles to adhere to but I wanted to highlight the key ones that they stick to as if it works for Google, it should be somewhat a golden standard for the rest of us.
1. Be socially beneficial.
2. Avoid creating or reinforcing unfair bias.
3. Be built and tested for safety.
4. Be accountable to people.
5. Incorporate privacy design principles.
6. Uphold high standards of scientific excellence.
7. Be made available for uses that accord with these principles.
Why is it so important we adhere to Ethical Ai in Finance?
The Financial industry is one of the most regulated industries in the world, and one that has to constantly be held to account, surely our use of Ai should follow suit? If we get it wrong it can have catastrophic effects as we’ve all either witnessed, studied at school, or read in the news.
If we generate Ai models that start to become corrupt, use unethical data sources and make decisions that are wrong, we are not learning from our mistakes and merely leaving ourselves open for an even bigger crash in the future.
This is why it’s imperative that the Ai models we create learn from our own mistakes, we don’t use it to justify supplying products to those who aren’t suitable for them. We used it to analyse the vast amount of historical data we have, make unemotional, unbiased decisions that ultimately benefit us all in the long run.
Used correctly Ai is an extremely powerful tool and without a doubt one of the biggest enablers in every industry. This is why it’s so important we stick to the principles above, technology is meant to make a difference, not open us up to a faster way to repeat the past and at a potentially larger scale.
As a Google Cloud Premier Partner, this is something Netpremacy can help with. With a team of experienced Data Engineers and Scientists, Netpremacy has helped deploy numerous Ai projects. This has helped develop our understanding of Ai projects, how to correctly develop algorithms to ensure they remain true, the data is clean and the results are fair.
If you’d like to know more about Ai reach out to me on alumley@netpremacy.com to see how Netpremacy can help with your Ai journey.
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