How is an AI Ethicist? Here’s What Companies Are Looking For.

If you are looking to make a career in artificial intelligence, this might be your chance.

Artificial intelligence, which was once considered to have the potential to impact lives everywhere is actually affecting thousands of lives every day in reality. AI algorithms are used in almost every sector – criminal justice, recruitment, news media, manufacturing, banking, military, law enforcement, etc. With AI being used in diverse areas, there is a growing worry among researchers that bias in AI can threaten human rights and society, coming in the way of free speech, right to resources and information, to name a few. With such risks, the need for ethical, responsible, and transparent AI is obvious.

But what more will it take to make AI ethics a priority for businesses?

In 2019, the AI Ethicist role was established as top 5 hires for companies that want to succeed in the digital domain. The need was brought to light as ethical and social implications of AI will only become a matter of greater importance. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) advised that "companies need to create roles for senior-level marketers, ethicists, or lawyers who can pragmatically implement ethically aligned design, both in the technology and the social processes to support value-based system innovation" in IEEE's Ethically Aligned Design Guidelines for Autonomous and Intelligent Systems v2.

In the past couple of years, many organizations came forward and expressed their need to hire for this role under different titles like Chief AI Ethics Officer, Chief Trust Officer, and AI Ethics and Governance. Tech giants like Microsoft, Google, Accenture took a step forward and actually hired for this responsibility. "The call for artificial intelligence ethics specialists is growing louder as technology leaders publicly acknowledge that their products may be flawed and harmful to employment, privacy, and human rights", highlighted Wall Street Journal.

The Need For A Dedicated AI Ethicist

What does an AI ethicist do? This role will be responsible for offering sound advice on ethical AI practice and guards the organization against bias, accidental consequences, and ensures accountability. Sadly, some companies have not realized its implications and consider this role as an add-on.

An AI Ethicist works across many disciples of the organization towards having ethical and unbiased AI goals throughout the product life cycle. The AI Ethicist will directly inform corporate leadership and the board of directors about unintended non-technical aspects of AI and the risks it might possess on the organization.

IBM has set the right example in taking the lead. IBM Policy Lab proposes a regulatory framework that consists of five policy imperatives for the organization, the first of which is to designate a lead AI ethics official. It goes on to say, "Providers and owners should designate a person responsible for trustworthy AI, such as a lead AI ethics official. This person would be accountable for internal guidance and compliance mechanisms such as an AI ethics board, that oversees risk assessments and harm mitigation strategies. A market environment that prioritizes the adoption of lead AI ethics officials, or other designated individuals, to oversee and manage the increasing complexity could help to mitigate risks and improve public acceptance and trust of these systems, while also driving firms' commitment to the responsible development, deployment, and overall stewardship of this important technology."

Who Can Be An AI Ethicist?

Now that we know why it is imperative for companies to get on board with hiring an individual to oversee AI ethics, let's understand what is required in an AI Ethicist's background.

Diverse Perspective: AI ethics is not just about meeting legislation and compliance requirements or coding a technical solution in a system. As AI is adopted throughout the product life cycle, it is critical for the potential candidate to have experience in every domain where AI can be implemented. Only then the person can have an ethical, social, and political perspective of AI technology.

Interdisciplinary Work Experience: Having technical knowledge and skill in areas like privacy legislation and machine learning is a bonus but not everything. An ethicist should be able to see the bigger picture and understand the system to be able to question and assess the consequences of the business processes. For this, interdisciplinary work experience is necessary.

Understanding Processes & Policies: A must-have skill for this role is the ability to question a design flow and develop a framework with necessary controls and loops. To reflect this in the work, a potential candidate should have previous experience in developing and structuring processes and policies.

Public Speaking Skills: Confidently public speaking and facilitating training workshops is an important part of this role. One has to prepare content for the target audience, host debates and discussions, and meet with customers to advocate for ethical and responsible AI.

With an AI Ethicist in charge, who holds these necessary skills, an organization will evade many unnecessary issues that can hinder its growth. Brian Kropp, Chief of Research, HR, envisions that a CAIEO (chief artificial intelligence ethics officer) as a person will create the ethical bill of rights that will be used to govern how an organization uses AI, where it will use it, how the organization will ensure it uses AI is the most appropriate way.