Ethics and AI

AI and Ethics for the Indian Context

An ethical framework in the field of AI should not be a mere appendage to its technological aspects. Rather, ethical understanding should be treated as an important aspect of the reasoning and rationalization of the impact of AI on the society. Ethical violations in AI processes, especially in areas such as health, education, financial markets, economy, housing and transportation could result in massive disruptions in the lives of a large number of people on a scale, hitherto, unimagined. In the Indian context, AI is steadily entering various sectors and will soon be ubiquitous. Questions regarding the nature and scope of the impact of AI on the lives of ordinary citizens of India abound. While ethical concerns of AI is an active area of research in Europe, US and elsewhere, given the unique nature of society in India, we would need to initiate research ourselves.

Intuitive Facts and Queries

In a country as diverse as India with mind-boggling variations in language, culture, food, customs and manners, region, society and religion, can AI successfully negotiate the labyrinth without being unfair to any one group or an individual? While there have been attempts to make AI algorithms fair with respect to a small number of protected attributes, what mechanisms can we adopt to ensure more complex constraints are met. Typically we cannot expect the data to implicitly capture these notions of fairness and would need to operate with an exogenous knowledge source.

The concept of social justice has been India’s singular socio-economic initiative aimed towards the disadvantaged people of the society. Considerations of social justice have even been introduced in the Constitution of India to create a level playing field for those who have suffered social discrimination for millennia. Can AI based systems incorporate principles of social justice in their rationalizations for example in admission and selection process? What would it take to build a system that can explain decisions on the basis of principles of social justice?

How much appreciation is there among the end users and general public about the wide-ranging impact of AI? Do they realize how the adoption of AI in certain crucial sectors can fundamentally change how things operate now? To this end, we will do a case study in the health sector. The objective of the case study is to evaluate the exposure of doctors, nurses and other health professionals to the concept of AI in medical industry. The sample will be collected from one General Government Hospital, one specialized facility in cardio, neuro, or cancer research and a reputed private hospital in Chennai and will cover doctors, healthcare workers, patients/caregivers and administrators.

India’s artificial intelligence policy landscape Today

The development, adoption and promotion of AI have been visibly high on the list of priorities of the Indian Government, an approach that rests on the premise that AI has the potential to make lives easier and make society more equal. The Union government in 2018 allocated substantial funding towards research, training and skilling in emerging technologies like AI, a 100% increase from previous investment.

This prioritization of digital technology is hardly new. The Union Government’s Digital India initiative is aimed at transforming India into a ‘digitally empowered society and knowledge economy’

Digital India envisages providing digital infrastructure as a core utility to every citizen, incorporating such digitization in governance and ultimately leading to the empowerment of citizens.

The increase in funding towards research, training and skilling in emerging technologies such as AI is carried out under the umbrella of the Digital India programme. The Government has also begun to work towards ensuring that AI technology is made in India, and made to work for India as well, fitting squarely within its Make In India, a government initiative to promote India as a global manufacturing hub.

While AI has featured as an important consideration in digital technologies broadly, a number of initiatives focused solely on AI have also emerged.

Future of Ethical AI

Some argue that an AI code of ethics can quickly become out of date and that a more proactive approach is required to adapt to a rapidly evolving field.

"The fundamental problem with an AI code of ethics is that it's reactive, not proactive. We tend to define things like bias and go looking for bias and trying to eliminate it as if that's possible."
-Arjit Sengupta[CEO of Aible]

A reactive approach can have trouble dealing with bias embedded in the data. For example, if women have not historically received loans at the appropriate rate, that will get woven into the data in multiple ways.

Conclusion

Down the road, we also need to plan for the unethical use of AI by bad actors. Today's AI systems range from fancy rules engines to machine learning models that automate simple tasks. It may be decades before more sentient AIs begin to emerge that can automate their own unethical behavior at a scale that humans wouldn't be able to keep up with.