Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a powerful, emerging force transforming business and society. It can help organisations improve prediction, optimise operations, allocate resources more efficiently, and personalise digital solutions. PwC estimates AI could contribute US$15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030. However, AI isn’t a futuristic technology; it is present in our everyday lives, used across a wide variety of industries.
The mobile industry is no different. For an increasing number of mobile network operators (MNOs), AI is at the core of operational and business models with three common uses:
- Core business optimisation
- Personalised customer interaction
- AI-driven mobile data insights for external stakeholders
As the adoption of AI accelerates, organisations and governments globally are considering how best to harness this technology to benefit people and the planet.
AIs potential to change the world represents not only an opportunity but a risk. AI depends on large amounts of data, often relating to individuals, and makes inferences based on this data. These inferences can be used to guide decisions that have a significant impact on the things people care about the most – their health, their employment, and their access to resources. It is, therefore, vital AI is used responsibly, in a way that protects our fundamental human rights.
We need to be able to trust AI to behave in the way we want it to, and when it doesn’t, we need to understand what went wrong and who should be accountable for this.
Responsible AI isn’t just the right thing to do; it can also positively impact companies’ bottom lines. Research shows organisations who proactively choose to act ethically – and tell their stakeholders they are doing so – can generate massive goodwill, build positive relationships, and increase market share.
A huge effort has gone into considering what responsible AI looks like, resulting in many organisations drawing up ethical AI principles. However, putting such principles into practise remains a challenge.
With this in mind, a group of MNOs worked with the GSMA to create a practical tool ‘The AI Ethics Playbook’ to support the operationalisation of ethical AI principles into everyday activities, featuring:
- Governance models
- Tools required to operationalise AI principles into business as usual
- Recommendations for a responsible AI journey.
This is the first blog in our AI4I series. In this series, we will further explore recommendations for a responsible AI journey and best practices from the industry and beyond it.
We invite you to watch the on-demand video recording of our interactive and informative webinar on AI Ethics.
The webinar featured leading industry speakers sharing their insights and experiences, alongside key takeways and highlights from the AI Ethics Playbook. We discussed how can we design, develop and deploy AI ethically in addition to governance models, tools and overall recommendations.