Rules we want AI to follow

The idea

AI ethics are values such as fairness, privacy, safety and accountability, turned into guidelines that shape how AI is built and used.

Write the first rule

You are writing the rules for a new school AI app. Which rule would you write first?

• It must treat every student fairly
• It must keep students' information private
• A teacher must be able to check and stop it

Match the rule to its value

AI ethics are values, such as fairness. A value becomes useful when it is written as a rule. Tap the value that each rule protects.

Tap a value. Read the reason, then press Next card. Some rules could protect more than one value.

Values become rules

Every rule you sorted protects a value. “Check each group” protects fairness. “Ask first” protects privacy. “Keep a person in charge” protects safety and accountability.

A value is what we care about. A guideline is the rule that turns it into action. Without the rule, a value is only a wish.

AI ethics are values such as fairness, privacy, safety and accountability, turned into guidelines for building and using AI.

Using such values to guide AI is often called responsible AI.

Notes

AI ethics are values such as fairness, privacy, safety and accountability, turned into guidelines for building and using AI.

A value without a rule is only a wish. Ask of any AI: is it fair, does it respect privacy, is it safe, and does someone answer for it?

Check yourself

A school app keeps every student's photo for five years “just in case”. Which value does this go against?

A bank uses an AI to approve small loans. Which rule helps most if the AI makes a wrong decision?

A team says, “We care about fairness,” but never tests its AI on different groups. What is missing?

• Fairness, because some photos look better than others. Fairness is about treating groups equally. Keeping photos does not favour anyone. The worry is about control over personal data.
• Privacy, because it keeps more data than it needs — correct. Yes. Collect only what you need and keep it only as long as you need it. Data never kept cannot leak.
• Safety, because photos are hard to store securely. Photos can be stored securely. The problem is the decision to keep more data than needed, for longer than needed.
• Approve only customers who look safest on paper. That could be unfair to people who look different from past customers. It also gives them no way to be heard.
• Make the AI decide much faster than people. Faster decisions mean wrong ones arrive sooner. Speed does not protect people.
• A person reviews a decision if the customer asks — correct. Yes. Human review keeps a person in charge and answerable, so a wrong decision can be noticed and corrected.
• A guideline that turns fairness into action — correct. Yes. A value is only a wish until a rule makes people act on it and check the result.
• Saying the word fairness more often and louder. Words alone change nothing. Values need rules that people follow and check.
• A faster, bigger computer for the team. Speed does not make a system fairer. The missing piece is an action, not more power.