Nice, a provider of a robotic process automation (RPA) platform infused with machine learning algorithms employed in call centers, today published a Robo Ethical Framework for employing AI to better serve customers.
Specifically, the five guiding principles for the framework are:
- Robots must be designed for a positive impact: Robots should contribute to the growth and well-being of the human workforce. With consideration to societal, economic, and environmental impacts, every project that involves robots should have at least one positive rationale clearly defined.
- Robots must be free of bias: Personal attributes such as race, religion, sex, gender, age, and other protected status should be left out of consideration when creating robots so their behavior is employee agnostic. Training algorithms are evaluated and tested periodically to ensure they are bias-free.
- Robots must safeguard individuals: Delegating decisions to robots requires careful consideration. The algorithms, processes, and decisions embedded within robots must be transparent, providing the ability to explain conclusions with unambiguous rationale. Humans must be able to audit a robot’s processes and intervene to redress the system to prevent potential offenses.
- Robots must be driven by trusted data sources: Robots must be designed to act based upon verified data from trusted sources. Data sources used for training algorithms should maintain the ability to reference the original source.
- Robots must be designed with holistic governance and control: Humans must have complete information about a system’s capabilities and limitations. Robotics platforms must be designed to protect against abuse of power and illegal access by limiting, proactively monitoring, and authenticating any access to the platform and every type of edit action in the system.
It’s not clear to what degree the Nice framework will become a real-world codicil to the literary Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics that start by saying no robot may harm a human or, by its inaction, allow a human to come to harm. However, the Nice framework and others like it are a step in the right direction.
Read more here: Nice publishes ethical framework for applying AI to customer service
