Understanding and Mitigating the Potential AI Risks in Business
Learn AI risks that you may come across when adopting this technology. Understand what you can do as a business owner to keep such risks at bay.
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Join For FreeDeveloping a well-functioning AI model is no less than an uphill battle. You need to provide it with the right training data sets and program it wisely so that it can make sensible decisions in different circumstances. If this job isn’t done properly, it can have severe repercussions. It is the main reason you need to be familiar with certain AI risks and challenges that come with AI implementation. Be it the fear of job replacement, security and privacy concerns, or unethical use of simulated intelligence, all can come true if the cons of AI technology are not properly dealt with. And if you want to get the hang of how to do that, all you need to do is to peruse this write-up entirely. First, let’s talk about:
Top 10 AI Risks That Can Hurt Your Business
1. Privacy Concerns
AI technology often garners and analyzes a sizeable amount of personal data that raises concerns about data privacy and security. To address this issue, it will pay off if businesses support data protection regulations and safe data management practices. Doing this can minimize AI risks to a massive extent.
2. Security Risks
As AI technology is becoming more advanced, the security risks related to its use and the chance for misuse are also upsurging. Wads of hackers and malicious actors can take advantage of AI to:
- Forge more sophisticated cyberattacks
- Avoid security measures
- Make full use of vulnerabilities in systems
3. Bias and Discrimination
AI systems can augment societal biases if they are instilled with biased training data or algorithm design by an AI development company. To sort out this trouble, it is a good idea to invest in the creation of unbiased algorithms and a wide variety of training data sets. This way, discrimination can be lowered and fairness can be ensured.
4. Deepfake AI
Deepfake AI can be defined as a specific form of AI technology that helps in developing real-looking yet forged audio, video, and images of different people or objects out there. The term Deepfake is made using a combination of “deep learning” and “fake” words, where the former indicates the technology and the latter the misleading content it generates. When it comes to AI risks, this particular technology is so powerful that it can replace a person with another in the existing content or media products.
That’s not all! If desired, users can produce completely new content where folks seem to do or state things they have never done or said actually. In short, the ability to spread wrong information that appears to be true makes Deepfake AI more dangerous than you can imagine, as per a leading AI development company.
How Is Deepfake AI Generally Used?
The application of Deepfake involves a myriad of intentions, like:
1. Entertainment
Deepfake technology acts as a source of entertainment in satire and parody, where watchers comprehend that the content isn’t original, still, they are pleased by the humor it offers.
2. Misinformation and Political Manipulation
According to a pre-eminent digital transformation services provider, Deepfake videos featuring any politicians or celebrities can be utilized to influence public opinion in a negative manner.
3. Fraud and Blackmailing
The next purpose for which Deepfake technology is exploited is to impersonate folks. For example, it can be tapped to get personal information, such as credit card and bank account details of any other person. Thus, a lot of malicious actors call on Deepfake AI for several purposes, like:
- Blackmailing
- Cyberbullying
- Reputation damage
Has Anybody Fallen Prey to Such AI Risks?
The answer is yes, and some famous persons who have been harmed through Deepfake technology are:
1. Tom Hanks
Hollywood actor Tom Hanks had informed his fans of late that an ad for a dental plan showing him was developed using AI technology. “My image was used without my consent,” the actor stated in a message to his 9.5 million Instagram followers. Further, he said that he had nothing to do with that advertisement and that his admirers could ignore the same.
2. Kristen Bell
The 39-year-old actress, widely popular for voicing Anna in the Frozen movie produced by Disney, came across a disturbing case where her picture was edited and added to explicit content on the internet. Her husband, Dax Shepard, was the one who brought this matter to her knowledge.
3. YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson
Globally recognized as Mr. Beast, Youtuber Jimmy Donaldson has recently become a part of misleading AI-powered advertisements. The controversial TikTok ad is actually a manipulated video of Donaldson, where he promises to give viewers $2 iPhones.
4. Rashmika Mandanna
Post her cleverly edited video went viral on some social media platforms, Rashmika Mandanna issued a statement, where she highlighted how much she was hurt by this incident. She is too scared of this technology as it can be misused by fraudsters easily.
Following such events, the prime minister of India Narendra Modi highlighted the concerns related to Deepfake and insisted on using the AI technology responsibly. Apart from that, to promote the responsible use of AI technology, the PM said that India will conduct the Artificial Global Partnership Summit next month. Hence, if you are interested in building a user-friendly solution for your entity keeping the ethical use of AI in mind, it is recommended to collaborate with a top-tier AI development company as soon as possible.
5. Ethical Dilemmas
Putting moral and ethical values into AI systems is no easy feat, especially in decision-making aspects that come with significant consequences. Therefore, the most trusted AI risk management firms want professional researchers and developers to focus on the ethical implementation of AI technology in order to steer clear of negative societal impacts.
6. Lack of Transparency
Lack of transparency in AI systems is a pressing issue that business owners must deal with. Such problems generally occur in deep learning models that can be complicated and difficult to understand. Due to this, the decision-making process and underlying logic of such technologies become more complicated.
When individuals can’t perceive how an AI system reaches its conclusion, this could result in distrust and hesitation in adopting these technologies.
7. Dependence on AI
Relying too much on AI-based systems can pose fresh AI risks down the line. For instance, overdependence on AI systems could translate into loss of:
- Creativity
- Critical thinking skills
- Human intuition
For this reason, it is necessary to maintain a balance between AI-driven decision-making and human input as this will assist in preserving your cognitive abilities.
8. Job Replacement
The automation ecosystem likely to be developed by AI technology can crop up as feasible AI risks. The worst news is that it can lead to employment loss across multiple industries, ranging from low-skilled professionals to individual contributors.
9. Legal and Regulatory Challenges
As of now, there is no regulatory body to govern the use of AI. This is why it is pretty necessary to create new legal frameworks and regulations that can fix specific issues arising from AI technology, be it liability or intellectual property rights. And that legal system must keep evolving with the speed of technological advancements to protect everyone’s rights.
10. Loss of Human Connection
Tapping AI technology excessively can have other negative impacts as per the viewpoint of an excellent digital transformation services provider. For instance, overreliance on AI-backed communication and interactions could result in the emergence of decreased:
- Empathy
- Social skills
- Human connections
And in order to drive down the possibility of coming across such issues, it will help if you strike a balance between technology and human interaction.
So, now that you got the hang of a multitude of AI risks that we are surrounded with, it is time to take a sneak peek at:
How to Reduce Possible AI Risks in Business
The best AI risks management companies on the cloud advise adopting the following policies, forming tools that support implementation, and encouraging the concerned government to bring the listed policies into effect.
- Responsible training: The first plunge you need to take is about whether and how to train a new model that shows the most primitive indications of risk.
- Responsible deployment: The next measure you must take is to decide whether, when, and how to deploy risky AI models.
- Appropriate security: Another thing you must do is to equip your AI system with robust information security controls and systems to stay away from extreme AI risks.
- Transparency: Make sure to provide concerned stakeholders with useful and actionable information to help them decrease prospective risks.
- Compiling an inventory: Compiling an inventory of the AI technologies and use cases for your company will work wonders. An inventory plays a crucial role in gauging feasible AI risks and facilitating discussions with the rest of the stakeholders in the entity, be it management, compliance, or legal.
- Creating and modifying a mission statement and guidelines for the formation and use of AI within your agency will also pay off.
- Reviewing current laws and proposals also makes some sense to actively evaluate the possible impact of existing and pending compliance obligations for AI systems.
- Constructing and implementing an AI-focused risk framework and governance model to implement relevant controls and real-time monitoring systems can help.
- Working with legal counsel is highly recommended as it assists in detecting compliance gaps, determining suitable remedies, and making other instrumental decisions to avoid mistakes.
- Bringing employees up to the pace on problems of acceptable usage of AI technology by designing apt guidelines will prove beneficial in the long run.
- Engaging with merchants to get a good sense of the uses of AI and their standards and regulations to help reduce any acquired business or reputational risks will yield impressive results. Beyond that, you can also update any contracts, agreements, and licensing terms if required.
- Making AI systems capable enough to stop system bias will also get you one step closer to dealing with AI risks.
Bonus
Worldwide adoption of protocols like GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation will go a long way in ensuring the safety of personal information of people. This will especially tackle platforms like X (formerly Twitter) that have no control over the content. Yes, anyone can post almost anything on Twitter/X and gain attention. But:
What Is the Actual Definition of GDPR?
For the uninitiated, the GDPR is the most powerful privacy and security law across the globe which is currently implemented in the European Union. This regulation enhanced the principles of the 1995 data protection directive as per the experts of an ace digital transformation services provider. The aforesaid regulation was adopted in 2016 and enforced on 25 May 2018.
The GDPR defines:
- Fundamental rights of fellows in the digital age
- Ways to ensure compliance
- Obligations of organizations processing data
- Penalty for ones who breach the regulation
Ultimately, if you are also planning to transform your business digitally and take maximum advantage of AI technology to improve productivity and efficiency, it is in your best interest to hire a custom software solutions provider who has expertise in AI development and AI risk management.
The Rundown
So this is the entire story of AI risks and how they can be managed with the help of effective strategies. Besides, you also need to remember that excessive use of AI technology can translate into loss of knowledge, loss of creativity, and more. People may depend on AI for almost everything, and as a result, the logical side of the brain may vanish and job replacement may occur. Above all, businesses may fail to get quality work done through AI-driven software instead of real people, provided that the former will generate mindless code to fabricate a mobile application — which will affect the app's quality.
For this reason, the topmost AI development companies suggest paying attention to responsible, limited, and ethical use of AI, which should be implemented on national and international levels.
Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.
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