With use cases as varied as virtual assistants and law enforcement surveillance, artificial intelligence (AI) is being rapidly deployed, with the potential to change our lives dramatically. It helps recruit us for job openings, approve or deny our loan requests, and even drive our cars — and in the process, it raises urgent questions about ethics, bias and consumer protection.
The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the turn toward AI, through contact-tracing algorithms and more, while adding greater complexity to discussions about issues such as privacy, security and fairness. As such, the momentum is behind policymakers and executives to find ways to address ethics and trust in AI. Against this backdrop, an urgent and timely EY survey shows the need for active dialogue between policymakers and the private sector to understand and align interests. Otherwise, as noted in the survey, such misalignment creates new risks, particularly for companies in developing products or providing services that are not aligned with the regulatory environment in which they operate.