Québec is renowned for its vibrant artificial intelligence (AI) innovation ecosystem for three primary reasons: a phenomenal talent pool, collaborative partnerships and a strong commitment to building ethics into design. In fact, the region is home to the Montreal Declaration for a Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence, which is globally recognized as one of the most comprehensive and pragmatic ethical frameworks for AI development and deployment.
The challenge with AI is that it introduces new risks and impacts that have historically been the purview of human decision-making, and not embedded in technology development. To address the unique challenges associated with the technology and enable a successful AI implementation, our community will require more than an ethics by design approach, but also trust by design. Building trust is the key to capturing AI’s full potential and driving long-term value for all stakeholders.
Organizations who want to succeed must embed a risk-optimization mindset across the AI lifecycle to manage potential risks, biases and downfalls. They need the ability to predict and measure conditions that amplify risks and undermine trust.
Understanding these risks and how to enable trust in AI systems requires a
coordinated approach with clear accountability across five key pillars:
• Advocacy: stakeholders must have a clear understanding of the benefits of AI, how will AI enhance the products and services they receive?Proficiency: does AI enhance and improve an organization’s brand, product, service and stakeholder experience?
• Consistency: is AI use in alignment with an organization’s stated purpose and does it support its achievement over time?
• Openness: has the organization effectively communicated and engaged with its core stakeholder groups on its use of AI and the potential benefits and risks?
• Integrity: is the organization’s approach to the design and operation of trusted AI in line with the expectations of its stakeholders?
The Québec AI innovation ecosystem thrives as a result of the ability and engagement of individuals and businesses who embrace ethics and trust by design, and develop new, innovative risk management techniques to accelerate value creation. By leveraging trust by design into their AI systems from the outset, organizations have the potential to leverage risk foresight to accelerate AI insights.
