Listen to Your Inner Umpire

Alison Taylor

Ethical AI Champion

Unlock your potential by understanding human rights in AI. Hone your inner umpire and learn how to navigate technology ethically, while aligning your decisions with values and civil liberties. You'll feel empowered to shape the future confidently!

AI Strategy and Governance

Listen to Your Inner Umpire

8 mins 25 secs

Key learning objectives:

Understand the importance of embedding human rights principles in AI
Understand how to identify and mitigate ethical risks of AI, including privacy, freedom, and labour practices
Understand how to cultivate and apply ethical awareness in personal and professional technology use

Overview:

Understanding the ethical challenges in technology is crucial. Alison Taylor discusses the need to embed human rights into AI development, addressing risks to privacy, freedom, and democracy. From child protection to fair labour practices, AI poses significant ethical concerns. Embrace your ethical awareness to ensure technology aligns with humane values, fostering confidence and responsibility in this messy, evolving digital age. This step helps you stay on track amid life's twists and turns.

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Summary

Why are human rights crucial in the context of emerging AI?

Human rights provide a fundamental framework to evaluate the impact of technology on individuals. These universal principles, developed after World War II, include civil and political rights, as well as economic and social rights like education and property ownership. They ensure personal privacy and freedom of expression, which are at risk from technological advancements. Emerging AI technologies pose threats to all these rights, highlighting the need for human rights to be a cornerstone in managing and governing technology.

What are the specific human rights risks posed by AI and emerging technologies?

Rights of the Child: Children are particularly vulnerable to harms from generative AI, as they struggle to distinguish between real and synthetic content potentially exposing them to inappropriate material.
Right to Own Property: AI technologies often scrape artists' works for training purposes without consent, leading to legal actions like Getty Images suing Stability AI
Right to Work and Earn a Living: AI’s development sometimes relies on exploitative labour practices, such as the use of underpaid workers in the Global South for content moderation, as seen with OpenAI’s use of Kenyan workers through Sama

How can fostering ethical awareness help in the digital era?

Ethical awareness is essential in navigating the digital era. It involves:

Reflecting on whether actions and decisions feel ethical and identifying any concerns
Considering the broader impact of one’s work and whether it may harm others
Continuously questioning and critically assessing the information and technology at hand

By maintaining a strong ethical and moral code, individuals can ensure they make decisions that align with their values and contribute positively to society. This approach empowers people to work harmoniously with technology and safeguard their own and others' rights.

What role does ethical awareness play in ensuring the responsible use of AI?

Ethical awareness ensures that individuals and organisations make conscious decisions regarding technology use. The pressure of competition and capital often drives companies to deploy AI products without considering ethical implications, leading to rights violations. Accountability often comes from those whose business is at risk or through court actions after significant harm has occurred. By fostering ethical awareness, individuals can recognise when their actions may be ethically questionable and make adjustments, ensuring they use technology responsibly and ethically.

The opinions and viewpoints expressed in this video are those of the creator and do not necessarily reflect the views of any affiliated organisations.

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Alison Taylor

Alison Taylor is a professor at NYU Stern School of Business and the Executive Director of Ethical Systems, a research collaboration focused on ethical organizational culture. She has spent the last two decades consulting multinational companies on risk, anti-corruption, sustainability, human rights, culture and behavior, stakeholder engagement, ESG, and ethics and compliance. She is also a senior advisor at sustainability non-profit BSR, a member of the Board at Venture ESG, and a sustainability advisor at Zai Lab, KKR and Pictet Group. Prior to joining Ethical Systems, she was managing director at Business for Social Responsibility, running the sustainability management, futures and supply chain practices. Alison has also worked at Transparency International, Control Risks, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Fordham Law School. She is a 2023-24 member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Good Governance, and is the author of 'Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World.'

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