Business Software Giant SAP has 7 commandments for ethical AI
German firm's 7 commandments for ethical AI
18 September 2018
FRANKFURT AM MAIN (AFP) - German business software giant
SAP published Tuesday an ethics code to govern its research into artificial
intelligence (AI), aiming to prevent the technology infringing on people's
rights, displacing workers or inheriting biases from its human designers.
"SAP designed these guiding principles to steer the
development and deployment of our AI software to help the world run better and
improve people's lives," the firm said in a statement.
A group including engineers, theologians, political
scientists and bio-ethicists put together a list of seven guidelines, ranging
from respect for United Nations human rights principles to data protection.
Following in the footsteps of better-known US tech giants
like Google and Microsoft, SAP -- which makes software for some 400,000 firms
worldwide to manage data on customer relationships, payrolls or inventory -- is
wrestling with how to impose values on AI's systems of algorithms designed to
ape certain aspects of human intelligence.
Public figures like entrepreneur Elon Musk or physicist
Stephen Hawking have warned of the dangers of out-of-control AI.
"The danger of AI is much greater than the danger of
nuclear warheads by a lot," Musk said at a technology conference earlier
this year.
But rather than a scenario like those depicted in modern
classics like "The Terminator" or "The Matrix" of computer
programmes running amok over their human creators, SAP's concerns are closer to
home.
Their seven points hit on contemporary concerns like
transparency, safety and privacy.
And one item on the list specifically warns of "a
risk of causing discrimination or of unjustly impacting underrepresented
groups" if AI inherits biases from human programmers -- a danger SAP hopes
to avert with more diverse development teams as well as "technical
methods".
- Creating 'free space' -
Meanwhile it is the potential effect on jobs that is
driving many warnings about the technology.
In an interview published on the SAP website, chief
financial officer Luka Mucic acknowledged that some people's jobs would
disappear as machines take on more work.
Nevertheless, "the changes brought by AI will most
likely take shape just as other major technological developments throughout
history, where new types of jobs were created" to replace lost ones, he
added.
Powerful German union IG Metall also chimed in on AI
Tuesday.
"Our answer to the challenges of AI is critical
intelligence," said the union's co-president Christiane Benner in a
statement, calling for firms to consult early with employee representatives
before implementing the technology.
"AI applications should unburden people and create
free space for higher-value activities," she added.
Not to be outdone by business and workers, Germany's
federal government this month convened a "Data Ethics Commission" of
its own, with ethical principles for AI among a range of fields it must pronounce
on within a year.
© 2018 AFP
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