Safe and Ethical AI (SEA) Platform Network · Linking Artificial Intelligence Principles (LAIP)

Principle 5 – Reliability & Safety

The reliability and safety principle ensures that the AI system adheres to the set specifications and that the AI system behaves exactly as its designers intended and anticipated. Reliability is a measure of consistency and provides confidence in how robust a system is. It is a measure of dependability with which it operationally conforms to its intended functionality and the outcomes it produces. On the other hand, safety is a measure of how the AI system does not pose a risk of harm or danger to society and individuals. As an illustration, AI systems such as autonomous vehicles can pose a risk to people’s lives if living organisms are not properly recognized, certain scenarios are not trained for or if the system malfunctions. A reliable working system should be safe by not posing a danger to society and should have built in mechanisms to prevent harm. The risk mitigation framework is closely related to this principle. Potential risks and unintended harms should be minimized in this aspect. The predictive model should be monitored and controlled in a periodic and continuous manner to check if its operations and functionality are aligned with the designed structure and frameworks in place. The AI system should be technically sound, robust, and developed to prevent malicious usage to exploit its data and outcomes to harm entities, individuals or communities. A continuous implementation continuous development approach is essential to ensure reliability.

Principle: AI Ethics Principles, Sept 14, 2022

Published by SDAIA

Related Principles

· 8. Robustness

Trustworthy AI requires that algorithms are secure, reliable as well as robust enough to deal with errors or inconsistencies during the design, development, execution, deployment and use phase of the AI system, and to adequately cope with erroneous outcomes. Reliability & Reproducibility. Trustworthiness requires that the accuracy of results can be confirmed and reproduced by independent evaluation. However, the complexity, non determinism and opacity of many AI systems, together with sensitivity to training model building conditions, can make it difficult to reproduce results. Currently there is an increased awareness within the AI research community that reproducibility is a critical requirement in the field. Reproducibility is essential to guarantee that results are consistent across different situations, computational frameworks and input data. The lack of reproducibility can lead to unintended discrimination in AI decisions. Accuracy. Accuracy pertains to an AI’s confidence and ability to correctly classify information into the correct categories, or its ability to make correct predictions, recommendations, or decisions based on data or models. An explicit and well formed development and evaluation process can support, mitigate and correct unintended risks. Resilience to Attack. AI systems, like all software systems, can include vulnerabilities that can allow them to be exploited by adversaries. Hacking is an important case of intentional harm, by which the system will purposefully follow a different course of action than its original purpose. If an AI system is attacked, the data as well as system behaviour can be changed, leading the system to make different decisions, or causing the system to shut down altogether. Systems and or data can also become corrupted, by malicious intention or by exposure to unexpected situations. Poor governance, by which it becomes possible to intentionally or unintentionally tamper with the data, or grant access to the algorithms to unauthorised entities, can also result in discrimination, erroneous decisions, or even physical harm. Fall back plan. A secure AI has safeguards that enable a fall back plan in case of problems with the AI system. In some cases this can mean that the AI system switches from statistical to rule based procedure, in other cases it means that the system asks for a human operator before continuing the action.

Published by The European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence in Draft Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI, Dec 18, 2018

· 9. Safety

Safety is about ensuring that the system will indeed do what it is supposed to do, without harming users (human physical integrity), resources or the environment. It includes minimizing unintended consequences and errors in the operation of the system. Processes to clarify and assess potential risks associated with the use of AI products and services should be put in place. Moreover, formal mechanisms are needed to measure and guide the adaptability of AI systems.

Published by The European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence in Draft Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI, Dec 18, 2018

3. Safe

Data enhanced technologies like AI and ML systems must function in a safe and secure way throughout their life cycles and potential risks should be continually assessed and managed. Designers, policy makers and developers should embed appropriate safeguards throughout the life cycle of the system to ensure it is working as intended. This would include mechanisms related to system testing, piloting, scaling and human intervention as well as alternative processes in case a complete halt of system operations is required. The mechanisms must be appropriate to the context and determined before deployment but should be iterated upon throughout the system’s life cycle. Why it matters Automated algorithmic decisions can reflect and amplify undesirable patterns in the data they are trained on. As well, issues with the system can arise that only become apparent after the system is deployed. Therefore, despite our best efforts unexpected outcomes and impacts need to be considered. Accordingly, systems will require ongoing monitoring and mitigation planning to ensure that if the algorithmic system is making decisions that are not intended, a human can adapt, correct or improve the system.

Published by Government of Ontario, Canada in Principles for Ethical Use of AI [Beta], Sept 14, 2023

· Deploy and Monitor:

1 Monitoring the robustness of the AI system should be adopted and undertaken in a periodic and continuous manner to measure and assess any risks related to the technicalities of the AI system (an inward perspective) as well as the magnitude of the risk posed by the system and its capabilities (an outward perspective). 2 The model must also be monitored in a periodic and continuous manner to verify whether its operations and functions are compatible with the designed structure and frameworks. The AI system must also be safe to prevent destructive use to exploit its data and results to harm entities, individuals, or groups. It is necessary to continuously work on implementation and development to ensure system reliability.

Published by SDAIA in AI Ethics Principles, Sept 14, 2022

Principle 6 – Transparency & Explainability

The transparency and explainability principle is crucial for building and maintaining trust in AI systems and technologies. AI systems must be built with a high level of clarity and explainability as well as features to track the stages of automated decision making, particularly those that may lead to detrimental effects on data subjects. It follows that data, algorithms, capabilities, processes, and purpose of the AI system need to be transparent and communicated as well as explainable to those who are directly and indirectly affected. The degree to which the system is traceable, auditable, transparent, and explainable is dependent on the context and purpose of the AI system and the severity of the outcomes that may result from the technology. AI systems and their designers should be able to justify how the rationale behind their design, practices, processes, algorithms, and decisions or behaviors are ethically permissible, nondiscriminatory, and nonharmful to the public.

Published by SDAIA in AI Ethics Principles, Sept 14, 2022