“[AI] scares the hell out of me,” Tesla founder Elon Musk said at an SXSW tech conference. “It’s capable of vastly more than almost anyone knows, and the rate of improvement is exponential.” On May 16, 2023, Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, developers of ChatGPT, testified before the Senate and largely agreed with them on the need to regulate the increasingly powerful AI Technology his company and tech giants like Google and Microsoft have created and are creating. What are the risks of artificial intelligence in data science?
Bias and Discrimination
One of the most significant risks of artificial intelligence in data science is the potential for bias and discrimination. AI algorithms learn from historical data, which may inherently contain biases present in the society it was derived from. If not properly addressed, these biases can perpetuate discrimination in decision-making processes. For instance, biased AI systems used in hiring processes can inadvertently discriminate against certain demographics, perpetuating existing inequalities.
“AI researchers are primarily people who are male, who come from certain racial demographics, who grew up in high socioeconomic areas, primarily people without disabilities,” Princeton computer science professor Olga Russakovsky said. “We’re a fairly homogeneous population, so it’s a challenge to think broadly about world issues.” The limited experiences of AI creators may explain why speech-recognition AI often fails to understand certain dialects and accents, or why companies fail to consider the consequences of a chatbot impersonating notorious figures in human history.
Lack of Transparency
Another risk for artificial intelligence in data science lies in the lack of transparency within AI algorithms. Many AI models, such as deep neural networks, operate as black boxes, making it challenging to understand how they arrive at their conclusions. This lack of interpretability can raise concerns, especially in critical domains like healthcare or finance. Without transparency, it becomes difficult to identify and rectify errors or biases, compromising trust in AI systems.
Data Privacy and Security
AI relies heavily on vast amounts of data, and the handling of this data raises significant privacy and security concerns. Organizations must ensure that sensitive information is properly anonymized and safeguarded against unauthorized access. Mishandling of data can lead to breaches, privacy violations, and potentially devastating consequences for individuals and businesses alike. Adequate data protection measures, including encryption and secure storage, must be implemented to mitigate these risks.
Overreliance on AI
While AI can greatly enhance decision-making processes, an overreliance on AI systems poses risks in itself. Blindly following AI-generated recommendations without human oversight can lead to erroneous outcomes or missed opportunities. Human expertise and critical thinking remain crucial in ensuring that AI outputs are carefully scrutinized and validated before making important decisions.
Compounding this inability to provide oversight is the need for the employment marketplace to transition from hourly workers to sophisticated, advanced degreed data scientists. Eighty-five million jobs are expected to be lost to automation between 2020 and 2025 while the need for AI related skills will create 97 million new jobs by 2025.
Ethical Concerns
Ethical considerations surrounding AI in data science cannot be ignored. Issues such as the potential displacement of human workers mentioned above, the responsibility for AI-induced errors, and the ethical boundaries of AI applications are areas that require careful examination. The ethical framework for AI development and deployment should prioritize fairness, accountability, and transparency to ensure responsible innovation.
Naukri Learning created a Maslow’s Heirarchy of needs in which each building block of the pyramid represents a data operation performed by a data scientist. Starting at the base with the collection of data, then moving up to the storage of data, exploring the data and then aggregating the data have all had significant advances by tech companies and the fulfillment of data science needs. The top of the pyramid is learn through the use of AI and this is the next threshold data scientists have to take the lead in, all while addressing and mitigating the biases and risks of artificial intelligence in data science.
Interested in discussing your data science career or hiring needs? Contact Smith Hanley Associate’s Data Science and Analytics Executive Recruiter, Paul Chatlos at pchatlos@smithhanley.com.
Note: This blog was written with the assistance of ChaptGPT!
