Businesses across industries are increasingly deploying artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze user preferences and personalize user experiences, boost productivity, and fight fraud.
Financial services are using AI to hedge financial risks, while the healthcare industry is leveraging AI to improve diagnosis and treatments as well as to reduce the time for development of vaccines. Marketplaces, eCommerce, retail, travel, gaming, entertainment, social media and many other sectors are all using AI in some way or the other.
AI suffers from three major issues at present, namely: privacy, bias and discrimination.
That brings us to the moot question whether AI should be regulated?
I would recommend regulating AI so that the entities using the technology act responsibly and are held accountable. You may counter my view saying that a move such as this may stifle innovation, pace and growth of the market.
Why regulate AI?
By AI regulations, I refer to the development of laws and policies that broadly govern the algorithms which will help promote responsible use of AI and make businesses accountable.
While AI can be extraordinarily useful to understand consumer preferences and influence customer behavior through targeted messaging, mandatory regulations on AI can go a long way in preventing technology from infringing human rights. They can help ensure that technology is used for the benefit of end users instead of negatively affecting their lives.
I firmly believe that the government must engage in meaningful dialogues with other countries on a common international regulation of AI. Having said that, governments must keep their roles limited and not assume absolute powers, lest it hurt the growth of the AI market, in the long term.
Artificial intelligence is already suffering from three key issues: privacy, bias and discrimination, which if left unchecked can start infringing on – and ultimately take control of – people’s lives. Therefore, the time to formulate AI regulations is now.
