Josefin Rosén
The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) into a business is not just about leveraging advanced technologies to improve efficiencies. Instead, it is about nurturing trust, ethics, and responsibility in digital systems. Of course, when it comes to any AI implementation, its impact and risk must be considered. This is where Trustworthy AI becomes an organisational imperative.
At a foundational level, AI should have a high impact in terms of creating efficiencies, but also low risk for creating harm. So, what is Trustworthy AI in this sense? As the name suggests, it is AI that you can trust, AI that is safe, fair, and ethical, and does not harm anyone or anything. Trustworthy in itself is another term that is fraught with misinterpretation, but it comes down to what is right and fair for us as people. Ultimately, it is that which reflects our values.
This means that Trustworthy AI must be developed and used according to ethical principles. In the global fabric, there’s a reported strong alliance among leaders for the G7 countries ‘toward fundamental values such as democracy and human rights’, and towards achieving interoperability in AI governance frameworks across global markets. But, at a local level, what is acceptable in one society might not work in another. For example, Trustworthy AI will feel and look different in the US or Europe, to how it is adopted by countries across Africa because people’s expectations as well as cultural and state laws and regulation are so different within each jurisdiction.
Guiding principles
At SAS we follow six guiding principles for Responsible Innovation – human-centricity, transparency, accountability, privacy and security, inclusivity, and robustness. These must be reflected in everything we do, in our people, our processes and in our AI platform. Yes, we are a software company, but we are also an advisor to guide customers on best practices. Our job is to make sure our principles are reflected throughout the AI lifecycle from development to deployment.
The essence of Trustworthy AI therefore lies in its capacity to align with our core values, broader societal norms, and ethical principles. In addition to our guiding principles, we have adopted a comprehensive approach including a collaborative governance model based on four quadrants. These include:
- Oversight perspective - an inter-disciplinary executive committee that guides AI ethical dilemmas from sales opportunities to procurement decisions,
- Controls – that focus on regulatory activities around the world and to establish AI specific risk management methods for ourselves,
- Platform – to integrate Trustworthy AI into our solutions and provide capabilities that enable customers to develop and deploy responsible AI applications, and finally,
- Culture – through training and coaching building a culture of well-meaning people that is consistent around the world when it comes to Trustworthy AI.