Less Considered, Unintended Consequences

The everyday effects of consumer based artificial intelligence are significant and far reaching. There are tangible benefits such as the proliferation of intelligence personal assistants like Siri as well as more indirect benefits like the incredible improvements in suggestion algorithms that power Netflix. Additionally, companies must also consider the unintentional effects of implementing such technologies. The MIT Sloan Management Review spoke with industry professionals to gauge some the most apparent such as the shifting nature of the workforce, increased reliance of good data, and the growing importance of privacy regulations [1]. However, I would argue that there are some more underlying less obvious impacts that have just as much, if not more due to their unwitting nature. I had the chance while studying at the Judge Business School to work with companies to not only determine some of these lesser researched effects, but also attempt to developed policy measures to mitigate their impact [2]. Some of those included:

1. The Principal-Agent Relationship: This well researched interplay in economics has serious implications in the accountability of digital domain [3]. The core question is whom does the AI work for.
   1. One such example is the previously mentioned suggestion algorithms. What weight does Netflix add to media created by their own production team?
   2. In the context of self-driving cars, during accident avoidance what weights are placed on the passengers in the vehicle versus the pedestrians on the street?
   3. An example of this can be drawn from Montse Medina our Guest lecturer representing Jetlore. Should consumers have the right to know their predictive chances of buying certain items? Is it considered predatory behavior? Do they target the things the consumer WANT the most or NEED the most?
2. Consumer Knowledge: There is an ever widening discrepancy between people’s perceived and actual understanding of the technology they use. This can, and has, lead to massive back lashes such as the one against Facebook’s selling of user data [4]. Although, some technologists have argued that this was never a secret and it was simple ignorance of the business model and platform functionality that led users to think they had been overtly wronged [5].
   1. Should companies be forced to develop education opportunities for users to learn about how their platforms work?
3. AI Research: More than 85% of company executives would say that AI will provide significant competitive advantage to their company [6]. This has driven a huge investment by firms to hire top researchers in the field. Some examples include Yann Lecun to Facebook’s AI Research and Fei-Fei Li to Google. This begins to raise the question of whether or not there will be a rise in the privatization of AI developments. Such a shift has the potential to shut tough conversation as about the ethics and politics behind the technology’s development behind closed doors.

 

This list is certainly not exhaustive, but is exemplary of the considerations that must be taken in the their development of these technologies. The policies and strategies used to counter some of these challenges must be crafted in such ways as to not fully stifle AI advancement. The potential benefits mankind has to gain from its thoughtful application are substantial. Therefore, some of the policy measures we had the chance to suggest included those informed though our conversations with industry experts. A trend that emerged was a focus on the inputs and actions of AI implementation rather than its internal functioning. Scores more work is yet to be done, but a methodology for developing these technologies must be underpinned with deeper societal and ethical considerations.

References: 

[1] Ransbotham, S., Kiron, D., Gerbert, P., & Reeves, M. (2016, September 06). Reshaping Business With Artificial Intelligence. Retrieved from https://sloanreview.mit.edu/projects/reshaping-business-with-artificial-intelligence/

[2] Hadi, M. (2017, December 13). The unintended consequences of Consumer AI. Retrieved from https://www.digicatapult.org.uk/news-and-views/blog/unintended-consequences-consumer-ai

[3] Bishman, A. (2016, May 05). Accountability in the Digital Age. Retrieved from https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Bishman_2016_DaviesEssayCompetition.pdf

[4] Kanter, J. (2018, April 21). Facebook users are mad as hell over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Retrieved from http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-users-want-revenge-after-cambridge-analytica-data-breach-2018-4?r=US&IR=T

[5] Placido, D. D. (2018, March 20). Should We Be Angry At Facebook, Or Ourselves? Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2018/03/20/should-we-be-angry-at-facebook-or-ourselves/#38e08d1249a0

[6] Reshaping Business With Artificial Intelligence