Ethics: The only way business will survive AI and keep morality

By Mathew Donald

It is clear that the business environment is now characterised with fast paced change, filled with uncertainty and risk, while change is transmitted easily through a globalised world trading environment. In just a few short years apps, voice recognition, GPS and mobile phones have been combined with logarithms in order to market and sell. The apps and logarithms have moved so fast that there are now allegations of corruption, influence in USA elections and the selling of private data for commercial gain. AI will likely soon emerge to perform many routine human tasks, where the transformation will be driven by cost, service or improved time and efficiency.

Ethics: The only way business will survive AI and keep morality

This AI transformation is likely to aid the introduction of robots as they take on physical activities of operations, car driving, planes and many routine tasks.
Staff have historically performed tasks based on policies, procedures and practices, each task being learnt and passed around. It is likely that over time AI will set out to replicate and improve many of these once human set of rules and practices, in order to replicate or improve. The mass change out of humans for AI or robots is not yet clear, yet based on current apps and mobile phone technology development we are clearly in an accelerating technology age.

Already new technology, apps and AI are being adopted widely across whole industries and competition in very short periods of time. Once any new technology satisfies its initial users needs it is easily adopted by other organisations, aided by their high use of social media, internet and trade integration.

Whilst new AI will likely have exceptional speeds, accuracy and replication qualities in the initial stages, it may be some time before AI can create exceptions, be creative or decide issues on moral grounds. The new age of disruption will likely create new efficiencies and new possibilities, moving so fast that staff and managers alike may not fully understand any resulting new products of services. If the new scenarios and options are left purely to AI it is likely that it will simply optimise and adopt, ignoring potential morality and society impacts. For instance, if AI invents a new reliable cloning process, there is potential for it to just be implemented based on efficiency, ignoring potential moral arguments to the contrary.

Businesses that have used policies and procedures to set boundaries and control activities may now find that those practices are too slow to react if AI discovers a logical better way to perform. There is potential harm to society, staff and the organisation itself if it allows AI to learn and operate in pure isolation, based merely on efficiency or cost. New transactions or processes may emerge with AI that may not yet be barred by regulators, where staff and managers may find they cannot even fully understand what is being processed due to faster speeds and complexity.

Should new processes take advantage of the poor, the ill or the disadvantaged it may not be satisfactory for managers to claim ignorance or that it was legal at the time. There appears to be a need for ethical behaviour in this emerging world of disruption, where some form of ethics is required to connect society with the organisation, especially its AI decisions. In an environment dominated by ethics it will matter not that a process or activity is purely possible and has advantage, rather it may be judged on its human harm, alignment to values or its creation of power imbalances.

Poor publicity and loss of value is often associated with organisations that fail to align with society, so organisations that have interactive and close ethical oversight may reduce their risk of impropriety or any AI failures. Business may find that an ethical framework that is well connected to society and reasonable staff values may better fit this fast-paced world. New AI transaction types may be interwoven with social media announcements and world events, this will likely put pressure on managers to make quick decisions that may leave the organisation exposed.

Staff of the future may not be in a position to wait for a new procedure in order to make a decision, where AI could make the decision quickly without any broader ethical understanding. Placing ethical frameworks around a business with associated training, may be a more prudent way of converting decisions into new opportunities in this new age.

Harming society based purely on a logical AI invention, transaction or new process is something that will be avoided if ethical standards are entrenched enough. Old governance processes that were once slow and overly focused on past performance and policies will need to be replaced with ethical frameworks and trained to all.
Leading and Managing Change in the Age of Disruption and Artificial Intelligence by Dr Mathew Donald is out now, published by Emerald Publishing, priced £65. For more information go to www.drmat.online

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