Ep. 88 Ethics, Artificial Intelligence, and Federal Technology

Advances in artificial intelligence are being released every day and being proposed as solutions for federal problems. Anyone who has raised children through their teen aged years is aware of the phrase, “unintended consequences.” 

We must be careful not to be dazzled by modern technology and not realize what unintended consequences are in store before we understand the ethics of modern technology.

Today, we have Reggie Townsend, the Vice President, of Data Ethics at SAS in the studio. He provides listeners with some commonsense guidelines to use artificial intelligence ethically.

In addition to his technical expertise, he is a member of the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee.

During the interview, Reggie talks about the problem in data collection. How do you know the data set the AI model was trained on? Is it a biased data set? How can you identify bias? SAS has worked at many levels of the federal government to solve some of these perplexing dilemmas.

 It seems to come down to trust. A recent survey by Pew Research shows that 20% of Americans trust the government. Reggie suggests that one way to eliminate bias is to work with more diverse teams.

The government is responding to some of these issues of trust. The Executive Office of the President has seen this situation and has offered a “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights: Making Automated Systems Work for the American People” back in October of 2022.

SAS has a website dedicated to helping people gain a better understanding of accessing quality data in an ethical and human-centered world.

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