Embracing AI is wonderful. From a practical business perspective, though, there are limits. This issue is broader than AI. However, I’ll constrain the conversation to that for now, given the attention AI is getting these days. Yes, some processes are undoubtedly good candidates for automation, but avoiding “technocentrism” is critical to
As AI rapidly advances over the next several years, I’ve been fortunate to have an active role in helping to guide a responsible path forward when it comes to technology’s impact on our daily lives. Currently, this role includes serving as Vice President for the SAS Data Ethics Practice, as an
Who is responsible for ensuring that new AI technologies are fair and ethical? Does that responsibility land on AI developers? On innovators? On CEOs? Or is the responsibility more widespread? At SAS, we believe that it is everyone’s duty to innovate responsibly with AI. We believe that adhering to trustworthy
I see the term resilience in a lot of business literature these days. Intuitively, it makes sense. After a pandemic, global supply chain disruptions and resulting economic fragility, executives understandably consider adaptability, durability and how best to operate with a strength of character – all attributes that define resilience. Many
In today's world, data-driven systems make significant decisions across industries. While these systems can bring many benefits, they can also foster distrust by obscuring how decisions are made. Therefore, transparency within data driven systems is critical to responsible innovation. Transparency requires clear, explainable communication. Since transparency helps people understand how
Generative AI (GenAI) is a category of AI that can create new content, including video, audio, images and text. GenAI has the potential to change the way we approach content creation. It’s gotten much attention lately. Take ChatGPT for example. The AI chatbot has captivated the public’s imagination with clever
In this post, Ajay Agrawal, professor at Toronto's Rotman School of Management, discusses the challenges of unlocking the full potential of AI and ML for businesses and banks. Agrawal explains how the taxi industry in London, UK provides a cautionary tale of the potential impediments to driving value from AI,
Responsible innovation is critical because technology does not exist in a vacuum. It affects us all in unexpected ways. We know analytics has an undeniable impact on society. For example, analytics can help hospitals manage their inventories for essential items like wheelchairs and bladder scanners, help sports teams curate a
One of the reasons I got involved with the trustworthy AI movement is because automated systems enabled by our past will hurt people – at scale – if we aren’t careful. Worse yet, and from a personal perspective, it concerned me that if such systems were deployed in justice and
If you're a marketer, you've likely heard the words "customer experience" tossed about for years. All the buzz is for a good reason: Positive customer experience (CX) increases profitability and improves employee engagement. But amid the spotlight on CX, many marketers are missing a key strategic element necessary to make
I’ve spent months traveling and speaking to business leaders worldwide about trustworthy AI and responsible innovation. On the nights I laid awake in unfamiliar hotel rooms, wishing my body clock would adjust faster than it was, I found joy in watching local television in local languages. While I don’t understand
It’s hard to get through a day in analytics now without hearing the words interpretability and explainability. These terms have become important in a world where machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) models are becoming more ubiquitous. However, what do the two terms mean—and more importantly, why do they matter?
As head of the SAS Data Ethics Practice, I spend a lot of time contemplating the social implications of AI. Considering its benefits like augmenting medical decisions and pitfalls, making decisions based on biased data results in dire consequences for patients. Such implications have the potential to impact society in a variety
Students at North Carolina State University completed design projects yielding striking visuals, purpose and functionality without unethical design characteristics. If you were to design the ultimate vacation home, you would most certainly consider options and features that speak to your individual preferences and style. It turns out that same inclination
We hear a lot about responsible AI or AI ethics in the marketplace today. At SAS, we believe there should be a larger conversation about responsible innovation. In reality, the decisions made by AI are the outcome of algorithms, data and business processes. This means ethical considerations must be applied
In my last three posts on data ethics, I explored a few of the ethical dilemmas in our data-driven world. From examining the ethical practices of free internet service providers to the problem of high-frequency trading, I’ve come to realize the depth and complexity of these issues. Anyone who's aware of these
Imagine if your ability to feed your family depended upon how fast you could run. Imagine the aisles of your grocery store as lanes on a running track. If you can outrun your fellow shoppers, grab food off the shelves and race through the checkout at the finish line, then
In my previous post, I examined ethics in a data-driven world with an example of how Facebook experiments on its users. Acknowledging the conundrum facing users of free services like Facebook, Phil Simon commented that “users and customers aren’t the same thing. Maybe users are there to be, you know... used.” What about when a
I have previously blogged about how the dark side of our mood skews the sentiment analysis of customer feedback negatively since we usually only provide feedback when we have a negative experience with a product or service. Reading only negative reviews from its customers could make a company sad, but could reading only
