Glossary

What is Ethical AI?

Ethical AI is artificial intelligence that adheres to well-defined ethical guidelines regarding fundamental values, including such things as individual rights, privacy, non-discrimination, and non-manipulation. Ethical AI places fundamental importance on ethical considerations in determining legitimate and illegitimate uses of AI. Organizations that apply ethical AI have clearly stated policies and well-defined review processes to ensure adherence to these guidelines.

Ethical AI is not limited to what is permissible by law. Legal limits pertaining to the use of AI set a minimum threshold of acceptability, while ethical AI sets policies that go beyond legal requirements to ensure respect for fundamental human values. For example, AI algorithms that effectively manipulate people – teens, in particular – to engage in self-destructive behavior may be legal, but they do not represent ethical AI.

Why is Ethical AI Important?

AI has the potential to be used for both good and evil purposes. The benefits from the ethical uses of AI are numerous and significant. The application of AI can help organizations operate more efficiently, produce cleaner products, reduce harmful environmental impacts, increase public safety, and improve human health. But if used unethically – e.g., for purposes such as disinformation, deception, human abuse, or political suppression – AI can cause severe deleterious effects for individuals, the environment, and society.

Laws and regulations are generally insufficient to ensure the ethical use of AI. It is incumbent on individuals and organizations who use AI – as well as those who develop and provide AI tools and technology – to practice ethical AI. Users and purveyors of AI must take proactive steps to make sure they are using AI ethically. This obligation goes beyond issuing statements; there must be specific policies that are actively enforced.

How C3 AI Helps Organizations to Deploy Ethical AI

C3 AI practices ethical AI. C3 AI believes integrity and ethical behavior are fundamental to a successful business. We are in the business of creating enterprise AI applications for companies, governments, and public and private organizations that help them to dramatically improve their operations and their products for the betterment of humankind. Our commitment to ethical AI extends to how we allow our AI to be used by our customers.

Elements of our ethical AI policies include:

• We will work with robustly democratic governments.
• We won’t allow totalitarian states to use our AI to advance their regimes or control their citizens.
• We won’t allow our AI to be used to deceive people or assign values to them through social scoring and other AI-powered systems.
• We will work in the energy industry to improve the efficient production and delivery of energy of all kinds, including renewables.
• If we learn that our AI is being used in a ways that violates our ethics, we’ll turn the switch off.