Leslie, D. (2019). Understanding artificial intelligence ethics and safety: A guide for the responsible design and implementation of AI systems in the public sector. The Alan Turing Institute. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3240529
Three suggestions for how to mitigate the risks to data privacy posed by the development and adoption of AI:
1. Denormalize data collection by default by shifting away from opt-out to opt-in data collection. Data collectors must facilitate true data minimization through “privacy by default” strategies and adopt technical standards and infrastructure for meaningful consent mechanisms.
2. Focus on the AI data supply chain to improve privacy and data protection. Ensuring dataset transparency and accountability across the entire life cycle must be a focus of any regulatory system that addresses data privacy.
3. Flip the script on the creation and management of personal data. Policymakers should support the development of new governance mechanisms and technical infrastructure (e.g., data intermediaries and data permissioning infrastructure) to support and automate the exercise of individual data rights and preferences.
Rethinking Privacy in the AI Era: Policy Provocations for a Data-Centric World by Jennifer King, Caroline Meinhardt, Stanford University Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, 2024.
The dangers of speaking out about AI were highlighted in an open letter this week (June 4, 2024) by a handful of current and former employees from OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic. Whistleblower protections are out of date and patchwork.
“I fear it will take a catastrophe to drive both greater oversight and stronger whistleblower protections for tech-sector whistleblowers,” said Dana Gold, senior counsel and director of advocacy and strategy at the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection and advocacy organization. “We should be very grateful to the AI employees who are speaking out now to prevent one, and we should all decry any reprisal they suffer,” she said.
Given the unlikelihood of a legislative fix, Gold said, "the tech industry can lead in implementing professional ethics standards like engineers, lawyers and doctors have to regulate the tech industry as a profession."
As part of that ethics standard, tech employers can make "contractual commitments to zero-tolerance for retaliation," Gold said (Thibodeau, 2024).
The authors of the open letter asked for AI companies to commit to the following principles—
We therefore call upon advanced AI companies to commit to these principles:
Thibodeau, P. (2024, June 6). Catastrophic AI risks highlight need for whistleblower laws. TechTarget. https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/news/366588073/Catastrophic-AI-risks-highlight-need-for-whistleblower-laws
"Air pollution and carbon emissions are well-known environmental costs of AI. But, a much lesser-known fact is that AI models are also water guzzlers. They consume fresh water in two ways: onsite server cooling (scope 1) and offsite electricity generation (scope 2)."
"Water scarcity has become one of the most pressing global challenges as we deal with the rapidly growing population, depleting water resources, and ageing water infrastructures, especially in drought-prone regions. The concern is not only about the absolute amount of AI models’ water usage, but also about how AI model developers respond to the shared global challenge of water shortage.
AI undoubtedly holds enormous potential to make our world a better place and help us address many challenges, including water scarcity. But this doesn’t mean we should let AI models guzzle our vital and finite water resources under the radar. Instead, every drop matters and AI should clearly lead by example to address its own water footprint while helping to combat global water challenges. Although many potential solutions can slash AI’s water footprint, the first step is simple: measure AI’s water footprint and make it public."
Ren, S. (2023, November 30). How much water does AI consume? The public deserves to know. OECD.AI Policy Observatory; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. https://oecd.ai/en/wonk/how-much-water-does-ai-consume