Five Critical Considerations for Artificial Intelligence Development

As society's concerns regarding the ethical use of AI continue to grow, it is recommended to take a step back to see the whole picture and identify the weak points before the damages escalate further. To build AI solutions sustainably, we have to have the entire picture, and below are a few threats that can shadow the enthusiasm that AI has brought to today’s society. By far, the advantages and development brought by AI outweigh the weaknesses, but ignoring them can lead to irreversible consequences. Hence, it is mandatory to have a 360-degree view and mitigate the potential risks from the early stages of AI's embracement into our lives.

Let’s briefly examine the most common factors that must be taken into account as artificial intelligence adoption progresses.

The AI Investment might not Bring the Expected ROI

Even if some features are highly innovative, sometimes the market needs to receive them as expected. This is because one of the biggest mistakes is when companies first come up with solutions and then try to find a problem that the solution can solve. The race for companies to develop AI-based solutions has heated up, but still, there are demands for solutions that do not even require AI or, at least, not advanced AI. To have a model appropriately trained involves a lot of time and resources, and it is only sometimes worth the price.

GenAI is a giant innovation leap, but it is not a panacea. The investment in R&D in the last couple of years has been enormous, but developing an overly innovative product is only sometimes the winning card.

Customers Need More Time to Be Ready for AI

One good example is chatbots, which often lead to awful CX. On the other hand, a sudden hyper-personalization of products might raise concerns about how the data is used. Also, many people don’t have excellent data literacy to identify a wrong answer and might be led in the wrong direction. These are just a few examples showing that customers might not even be ready for advanced features and resist innovation.

The Bad Guys Are also Watching

As Isaac Asimov said in the Three Laws of Robotics, “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”. But is that always the case?

Some employees have used Generative AI tools as a shortcut to their daily tasks but have leaked sensitive data. A few students cheat on exams, raising significant questions about how the educational system is still reliable nowadays. The examples can continue with more severe breaches of regulations. Therefore, any company that directs important endeavors to develop AI solutions should bear in mind their product's usage with malicious intentions.

The Risk of Failure Can Lead to a Loss of Trust

A good example is Google’s Bard, which didn’t perform as expected in February 2023 on its first demo day. The company learned the lesson, and the AI features announced at the I/O event in May 2023 went smoothly and led to a significant increase in the company's share price. This scenario has a positive outcome, but prudence is always required, considering that any slip-up could result in severe consequences, given customers' high expectations in terms of AI.

Ethical Concerns 

Elections will be held in multiple countries in 2024, and there are already concerns regarding manipulating information through deep fake techniques. Another ethical issue is related to biases in AI, which are still present despite the progress made in recent years. Also, one of the primary reasons for the distrust and fear surrounding artificial intelligence is its potential impact on the workforce. For many years, there has been concern that technological advancement will displace workers and disproportionately impact vulnerable populations. If a company develops innovative solutions with an impact on society, it should consider how to tackle these reputational risks in its strategy.

Conclusions

The best shield against the bad-faith use of this technology is to increase digital literacy among employees and customers - and this is more up to the entire society, including governments and other stakeholders. Companies should first consider the purpose of rolling out a product and not use AI at any price. Testing will be fundamental to flawless development. The upcoming EU Commission legal framework on AI is expected to be applicable earliest in the second half of 2024. While artificial intelligence development will continue to accelerate, future efforts must focus more on analyzing the impact of AI on society as a whole rather than solely on technological advancement.