AI for Good Report

July 2019

Leading your Organisation toResponsible AI

Technology Partner

www.digitalleadershipforum.co.uk

Technology Partner

2 | Digital Leadership Forum

Table of Contents

What is DLF and AI for Good?

AI for Good Session Videos

Key Takeaways

Round Table Discussions

Contributors

Further Reading

Companies in Attendance

3

4

6

9

10

13

14

What is the DLF?At the Digital Leadership Forum, we help our members and theirorganisations to innovate and grow in the digital age. We do this bydesigning and running highly interactive, collaborative and inspiringsessions where our members can share experiences and gain valuableinsights to help support their digital strategies. We tackle a range of corestrategic business issues including digital transformation, artificialintelligence and automation, digital marketing strategies; the future of work,and diversity in the workplace.

What is AI for Good?The membership of the Digital Leadership Forum has asked for more knowledgeand insight on the rise of AI technologies and their applications. Following a well-attended AI Ethics meeting in 2018, we decided to launch a dedicated AI forGood membership community project. This initiative involves members from world leading organisations, academics,regulators, policy advisors and AI experts. AI can lead to better businessoutcomes such as increased revenue, enhanced customer experience butdeployment of AI requires careful management to prevent unintended damagesto your brand, work colleagues, and society as a whole. With the support of Dell Technologies, AI for Good is a quarterly series ofsessions which are designed to help members use AI in a responsible way.

3 | Digital Leadership Forum

Technology Partner

Session Videos

The Ethical and Governance Challenges of AI with DrJennifer Cobbe, Trust & Technology InitiativeWhat is AI actually capable of? What are the downsides of machinelearning systems? Dr Jennifer Cobbe, Coordinator of the Trust andTechnology Initiative at the University of Cambridge. Cobbe addresses theethical and regulatory challenges of AI.

Unlocking the Black Box with Lloyds Banking Group’sAbhijit AkerkarWhat is the Black Box in AI? Lloyds Banking Group’s Abhijit Akerkar - Headof Applied Sciences, Business Integration - explains how and why wecreated the black box, what’s changed since its creation, and what we cando now to use artificial intelligence responsibly.

Watch video here

Watch video here

4 | Digital Leadership Forum

Technology Partner

Session Videos

Pitfalls of AI with Dell Technologies’ Glenn Mallon Directorof UKI Financial Services and InsuranceWhat are the potential pitfalls of AI? How can we harness data for good?Dell Technologies’ Director of UKI Financial Services and Insurance explainshow we can overcome the major challenges of AI: bad data, lack oftransparency, bias, data exploitation, tracking, and profiling.

Responsible AI with Dell Technologies’ Margarete McGrath,Chief Digital OfficerDell Technologies’ Chief Digital Officer Margarete McGrath tells us why it’sso important for organisations to be responsible when using data and newartificial intelligence technologies. Organisations can learn from each otherby sharing their experiences using AI, working together to develop acollective definition of AI for good.

Watch video here

Watch video here

5 | Digital Leadership Forum

Technology Partner

As machines become better and smarter at making decisions, the questionof how we ensure their ethical behaviour arises. This was one of the topicsdebated at the Digital Leadership Forum’s “Leading your organisation toresponsible AI” event, hosted by Lloyds Banking Group in London on 19thJuly. The session was the first instalment of a series of events, part of DLF’snewly created “AI for Good” initiative. The project, supported by DellTechnologies, aims to help organisations deploy ethical artificial intelligence(AI) in their products and operations. The event kicked off with a discussionof a “black box”, a traditional AI model – based on the idea that the moredata-heavy and complex the system is, the more accurate the model is.However, this does not always work in practice and makes it more difficultto determine the outcome. For example, a bank might decline a mortgageapplication based on the AI model’s recommendation and then fail to explainto the consumer why this occurred.

Key TakeawaysLeading Your Organisation to Responsible AI19th July 2019 | Lloyds Banking Group

AI systems can be unintentionally biased and even discriminatory, oftenreflecting the data trends inputted into the model. A solution to this issue isto build an “explanatory model”; replicating the traditional “black box”, withthe addition of a feedback loop to improve performance and robustness, aswell as minimising biases within the data. Mastering the explanatory modelwill help organisations build trust with their customers and supportcompliance with regulatory requirements. Concerns regarding privacy andthe inherent bias of AI systems have long been perceived as the mostcommon pitfalls of the technology. Bias occurs when there is a lack oftransparency of how AI systems operate and when data is of poor quality.Machine learning processes are only as good as the data they areprogrammed with, often replicating the deeply rooted biases present in oursociety.

"Machine learning processes are only as good as thedata they are programmed with, often replicating thedeeply rooted biases present in our society.”

6 | Digital Leadership Forum

Technology Partner

"If managed well, AI will challenge society, enable us to bemore productive and conscientious"

To address this challenge,organisations must ensure that AIapplications are developed by teamsfrom diverse gender, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Moreover, toensure that the privacy of theindividual is not diminished by thecollection of personal data, includingtheir identity and behaviours;organisations must remain transparent,justified and accountable throughoutdecision-making processes and in theirapplication of AI.

These values underpin theindividual’s right to be forgotten. Ifmanaged well, AI will challengesociety, enable us to be moreproductive and conscientious,although it was also suggestedduring the discussion thatmachines will not outsmart peopleas the unique element and processof human emotion cannot bereplicated. Focus then turned towhether we really need AI.

AI bias and societalchallenges

7 | Digital Leadership Forum

Technology Partner

"Technology is always presented as a solution to difficultproblems – yet non-technical problems are rarely solved bytechnology.”

Technology is always presented asa solution to difficult problems – yetnon-technical problems are rarelysolved by technology. Beforelaunching a new technology or AIapplication, organisations shouldask themselves if AI is the mostsuitable and effective option toaddress the problem that needssolving. Companies should considerthe context and ultimate purpose inwhich AI is to be used.

The same applies to the regulation oftechnology; regulation should notsimply respond to technologicalchange but also facilitate andmediate its use. Regulation shouldalso be targeted at actions andhuman behaviour, not at technology.Governments must provide a legallyenforceable threshold for responsibleAI that drives innovation in a positivedirection.

Is AI always theanswer?

8 | Digital Leadership Forum

Technology Partner

Round Table DiscussionsThe event ended with roundtable discussions on topics ranging fromavoiding bias and ensuring responsible AI to regulating AI in the interest ofsociety. While “responsible AI” has become a widely debated issue,stakeholders struggle to define what is meant by the term and differentiatethese practices from “irresponsible AI”. Instead of adopting umbrella terms,it is useful to consider the applications of AI in the specific context ofdifferent sectors and use cases. This provides a sharper focus whenconsidering the challenges of AI in a particular sector and the actionsrequired to solve them collectively. It is essential to engage with a range ofperspectives across sectors and facilitate the involvement of multiple actorsincluding industry, academia, civil society and governments. Finally, all levelsof AI applications, from data to algorithms, should be examined to ensurethat they are free from societal biases and discrimination of historicallyunderrepresented and marginalised communities.

Author: Ivan Ivanov, Marketing Manager@byivan @AccessAlerts

9 | Digital Leadership Forum

Technology Partner

Contributors

Abhijit is bringing machine intelligence tolife at the Lloyds Banking Group. His focusis on combining machine and humanintelligence with data to fundamentallychange the way the Bank does businessand create new opportunities forcustomers and colleagues. Additionally, heis setting up an Academy in the LloydsBanking Group to democratise AI skillsacross 75,000+ employees to empowerthem to succeed in the data-driven future. Earlier, at McKinsey & Company, Abhijitengaged with leaders from largeenterprises across Europe, Asia, and NorthAmerica to help them take strategic andinvestment decisions, build new digitalbusiness models, and drive above-marketgrowth. He led a venture with a leadingdigital corporation to develop analyticalofferings for energy and investmentsectors.

Abhijit AkerkarHead of Applied Sciences,

Business Integration

10 | Digital Leadership Forum

Technology Partner

Thank you to our speakers from Lloyds Banking Group,Dell Technologies, and University of Cambridge.

Contributors

Dr Jennifer CobbeCoordinator - Cambridge Trust

and Technology Initiative

Dr Jennifer Cobbe is a researcher inthe Compliant and AccountableSystems Group in the Department ofComputer Science and Technology(Computer Laboratory) at theUniversity of Cambridge. She is also the Coordinator ofCambridge’s Trust and TechnologyInitiative, which explores thedynamics of trust and distrust aroundinternet technologies, societies, andpower. She is affiliated with theMicrosoft Cloud Computing ResearchCentre, and a co-convener of theCritical Perspectives on Law,Technology, and Society ReadingGroup in the Faculty of Law atCambridge.

11 | Digital Leadership Forum

Technology Partner

Contributors

Glenn MallonDirector, UKI Financial

Services and Insurance

Glenn Mallon is the Director, UKIFinancial Services and Insurance atDell Technologies. He usestechnology to enable customergrowth and economic progress. Glennuses his expertise to motivate histeam, build trust with his colleaguesand support the implementation ofnew methodologies.

12 | Digital Leadership Forum

Technology Partner

Further Reading

Why emotional artificial intelligence matters

The University of Oxford’s guide to AI

Algorithmic bias in facial-recognition software

The Robots Are Now Hiring

Responsible AI & Robotics – an ethical framework

AI at Google: our principles

13 | Digital Leadership Forum

Technology Partner

Companies in Attendance

14 | Digital Leadership Forum

Technology Partner

Join the next session17th October 2019

The ethics of artificial intelligence

www.digitalleadershipforum.co.uk

Technology Partner