Achieving a Data-driven Risk Assessment Methodology for Ethical AI

TL;DR

This paper introduces DRESS-eAI, a novel data-driven risk assessment methodology designed to help organizations ethically develop AI by integrating multidisciplinary insights and practical governance strategies.

Contribution

It presents a new, comprehensive risk assessment framework for ethical AI, grounded in multidisciplinary research and applicable in real-world organizational contexts.

Findings

DRESS-eAI effectively identifies ethical risks in AI development.

The methodology supports organizations in aligning AI practices with human values.

Cross-structural governance enhances ethical AI implementation.

Abstract

The AI landscape demands a broad set of legal, ethical, and societal considerations to be accounted for in order to develop ethical AI (eAI) solutions which sustain human values and rights. Currently, a variety of guidelines and a handful of niche tools exist to account for and tackle individual challenges. However, it is also well established that many organizations face practical challenges in navigating these considerations from a risk management perspective. Therefore, new methodologies are needed to provide a well-vetted and real-world applicable structure and path through the checks and balances needed for ethically assessing and guiding the development of AI. In this paper we show that a multidisciplinary research approach, spanning cross-sectional viewpoints, is the foundation of a pragmatic definition of ethical and societal risks faced by organizations using AI. Equally important is the findings of cross-structural governance for implementing eAI successfully. Based on evidence acquired from our multidisciplinary research investigation, we propose a novel data-driven risk assessment methodology, entitled DRESS-eAI. In addition, through the evaluation of our methodological implementation, we demonstrate its state-of-the-art relevance as a tool for sustaining human values in the data-driven AI era.