Responsible AI for Business

If technology moves in waves, then AI is a Tsunami that’s currently destroying everything in its path. Unless, of course, you embrace it.

The transition to a world where Artificial Intelligence (AI) commands respect has come. The “what if” discussion has passed. Today, business owners and shareholders must focus on ways to implement AI responsibly.

Most people avoid AI and don’t have plans to integrate it into their existing workflows anytime soon.

That’s a problem.

AI is a centrifugal force at the center of the global economy. The race to embrace AI has created a unique era in technology where organizations and governments are stuck between learning exactly what AI is and determining how best to approach it. It’s somewhat of an anomaly but so are many new technologies until fully understood.

Therefore, it’s time to understand it.

This post assumes you have a basic understanding of AI. If you’re unfamiliar with AI, you may benefit from starting your AI journey by reading The Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence. We’re going one step further by sharing ways to use AI responsibly.

The Ethical Dilemma: How to Use AI Responsibly

AI isn’t intrinsically biased, but it can be. It isn’t sentient, but it might be one day. It doesn’t inherently stir up dissension but the intentions of its operator(s) matter. Most AI tools live within a container. Fact-checkers, programmatic boundaries, and scanTechs create thriving environments for AI to be trained within limitations. Remove those containers and the realities of AI become much more ominous.

How we use AI matters, to a certain extent

Elon Musk once warned that AI could go rogue. And he’s not crazy for suggesting this, either. As one of the founders of OpenAI (before selling his stake due to personal dilemmas), an outspoken proponent of responsible AI, and a renowned futurist, there are few more qualified experts than Musk when speaking on AI. Rogue AI is a possibility, but it shouldn’t terrify us. It should inspire us. Inspire us to learn AI and create sustainable, ethical tools and systems around it. Inspire us to teach others what we know and what could happen if not used properly.

On the contrary, if we model AI responsibly, respect its potential, and build future-proof containers around it, the potential upside is limitless.

Ways to use AI responsibly

AI Virtual Assistants

AI Virtual Assistants can be trained to schedule and delegate tasks, prioritize requests, integrate with virtual calendars, book appointments, auto-send and -respond to emails, and more. This all seems pretty harmless, right? Well, how you train AI matters.

Potential Misuses

Since AI is a trained model, the operator has total control over its usage and performance. Avoid training your AI virtual assistant to perform tasks customers didn’t authorize or may need to be reviewed before sending. For instance, using your AI assistant to send an unauthorized email (SPAM) to a client could result in complaints or unsubscribes.

Responsible Uses

Set up the proper containers and train your AI virtual assistant so no unauthorized actions are taken. AI is a learning model, it’s constantly improving based on the information and commands you input. Retraining AI is more time-consuming than training it properly the first time, but that doesn’t mean it won’t need refining. The way you refine AI is by feeding it more good information.

ChatGPT for Business

ChatGPT is a chat engine that allows users to train its AI model (GPT4) to read, analyze, and respond to questions and commands through an intuitive, conversational interface. The more information you feed it, the more intuitive it becomes. ChatGPT can even be trained to create responses (usable content) that fit your brand style or personality.

Practical uses of ChatGPT for business

• Drafting legal documents
• Generating SEO content and ad copy
• Drafting customer emails and proposals
• Writing film scripts
• Storylining and persona development
• Solving math problems
• Deciphering complex spreadsheets
• Developing marketing strategies
• Altering images
• Recommendation Engines*

Using ChatGPT’s Paid Model

Using ChatGPT’s paid model, users can create containers (buckets) for teams and projects. For instance, an organization may set up a ‘Legal and Finance’ bucket for its legal and finance teams to access to run financial reports, draft legal documents, set invoices and payment reminders, and find answers to legal questions instantly. The paid model gives users more control and greater potential.

Recommendation Engines

Recommendation engines use AI language models to do one thing: Make recommendations. Enterprises can benefit from recommendation engines by instantly analyzing data sets, spreadsheets, audio files, meeting notes, and market reports to make calculated recommendations and predictions.

Going back to the “AI isn’t going to take your job” notion, Recommendation Engines are not fool-proof and shouldn’t be used to replace human emotion. When decisions need to be made within an organization they may require weighing human emotion. Since AI is incapable of processing emotions, emotions aren’t used when AI makes recommendations. This can be an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on the circumstances.

Generative Content

Generating content for your website, print media, ads, presentations, and reports has never been easier.

AI Enterprise Tools

Decision-making, data extraction, database optimization, team delegation, projections, market reports,

AI for Logistics

Using AI, logistics organizations can predict weather patterns and other environmental factors to optimize routing and delivery. AI can notify drivers of sudden traffic slowdowns and suggest alternate routes. It can be used to automatically schedule delivery times and notify customers. And perhaps most importantly, AI can be used to manage vehicle and drone fleets.

Operational AI

AI won’t take your job. The people who use AI will take your jobs. Most organizations can improve their operations. By improving operations, profits increase. When profits increase, companies hire people. Optimizing operations using AI shouldn’t scare middle managers. Instead, middle managers should find ways to optimize operations and boost productivity using AI.

Has your floor manager noticed a discrepancy in end-unit output compared to forecasts? Use AI to optimize manufacturing throughput and integrate with back office systems.

Are you looking to build a new processing facility for your growing toy company? Use AI to predict environmental impacts before making decisions, cut unforeseen risks, and reduce costs.

Or, maybe you’re looking to automate your recruiting process based on your HR Manager’s recommendations. Use AI to replicate and rapidly deploy new technologies based on existing systems.

Where to go from here

All of the examples above are responsible use cases of AI. Automating and optimizing your current systems and infrastructure using AI can be a slow rollout, but forward progress is imperative. Hesitating to use AI may turn out to be detrimental to your organization. Instead, educate yourself and your workforce on the responsible uses of AI. Invite your employees to continue learning about AI and to find new ways to use it.