· 5. The Principle of Explicability: “Operate transparently”
Transparency is key to building and maintaining citizen’s trust in the developers of AI systems and AI systems themselves. Both technological and business model transparency matter from an ethical standpoint. Technological transparency implies that AI systems be auditable, comprehensible and intelligible by human beings at varying levels of comprehension and expertise. Business model transparency means that human beings are knowingly informed of the intention of developers and technology implementers of AI systems.
Explicability is a precondition for achieving informed consent from individuals interacting with AI systems and in order to ensure that the principle of explicability and non maleficence are achieved the requirement of informed consent should be sought. Explicability also requires accountability measures be put in place. Individuals and groups may request evidence of the baseline parameters and instructions given as inputs for AI decision making (the discovery or prediction sought by an AI system or the factors involved in the discovery or prediction made) by the organisations and developers of an AI system, the technology implementers, or another party in the supply chain.
Published by The European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence in Draft Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI, Dec 18, 2018