Rolls-Royce has published a ground breaking Artificial Intelligence Ethics toolkit and framework in a move aimed at advancing ethical use of AI by organisations and governments. This marks a huge step forward in the development of AI as ethics has been one of the areas which have greatly slowed down the adoption of AI across the globe.
The AI Toolkit, named The Aletheia FrameworkTM, after the Greek goddess of trust and disclosure, will help tackle mistrust which is one of the biggest barriers to the widespread use of AI.
Speaking during the announcement of the break through in Ethical AI in September this year, Rolls-Royce CEO Warren West noted that, “I hope today’s publication will become a watershed moment for artificial intelligence. As we move rapidly to a more digital world, people have a right to expect that AI is used ethically and that it is a trustworthy partner for people and society.”
“The Aletheia FrameworkTM provides the foundations for that to happen, so business leaders, academics, technologists and even philosophers can now move from simply talking about the potential of AI, to unlocking its benefits for the health, wealth and growth of the world.
Warren East, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce
“It’s with that objective in mind that Rolls-Royce has decided we need to make this free for anyone to access and we will seek to build partnerships with interested organisations to support its widespread application, so that we can all build trust in AI.” adds Warren East.
The framework is a checklist that invites organisations to consider the impacts of using artificial intelligence. Organisations are required to take into account a total of 32 facets of societal impact, governance and trust, and transparency. Furthermore, it requires executives and boards to provide evidence that these potential impacts have been rigorously considered before choosing to proceed with AI implementation.
The framework also looks at other measures once AI has been applied, including a five-step continuous automated checking process, which, if comprehensively applied, tracks the decisions the AI is making to detect bias or malfunction. This is important in allowing human intervention to control and correct the bias or malfunction.
We also recently caught up with Caroline Gorski, the Group Director of R2 Data Labs, the data innovation team for Rolls-Royce, to help elaborate Ethical AI and what the Rolls-Royce ground-breaking innovation means.
Listen to our 5-part podcast series on Artificial Intelligence and Ethics here.
Anyone interested in learning more about The Aletheia Framework and the trustworthiness process, can download it for free here.
