I’ve been in lots of AI workshops and meetings this week where so much of the conversation has focused on ethics. Behind these discussions I think there’s a bigger question- can I really trust these technologies? Am I doing the right things with them, or am I doing something wrong? And can I trust my organisation?
These were some of the questions that were explored at an excellent workshop about AI and trust in grantmaking run by CAST Centre for the Acceleration of Social Technology, Technology Association of Grantmakers & IVAR – Institute For Voluntary Action Research. Ethics and trust in AI was also a big part of the group discussions at a session I presented for new charity CEOs at Centre for Charity Effectiveness at Bayes.
Lack of trust in AI tools amongst UK charities has more than doubled this year (rising from 15% to 35%). Despite the growth in AI adoption, 79% of charities use these tools. It’s a bigger concern for charities supporting those from specific marginalised communities, based on data from our Charity Digital Skills Report. Thank you Jean Westrick of the Technology Association of Grantmakers, Brian Yim Lim of Barts Charity and Dan Sutch of CAST for mentioning these stats at the AI in Grantmaking event yesterday. Because how are our charities and the sector going to transform if people don’t trust the technology?
There are several things I think leaders can do about this:
1. Discussing ethics and AI can feel emotive and weighty. Yet charities have an advantage in navigating these discussions in that ethics is our bread and butter. Your charity will have dealt with difficult, sensitive issues before, from safeguarding to due diligence on corporate partnerships. Think about how you’ve found a way through these discussions previously, and what frameworks you’ve used to have them, however nascent. What has helped unlock these discussions? What are the values and principles you followed to find a way through?
2. Look at what’s in your control and what you can influence. Whenever ethics comes up in AI people understandably want to talk about everything from economic collapse to mass unemployment and climate change. There are a lot of knotty issues to work through. As a leader, you’ll need to help your charity filter and prioritise them, based on what matters most to your mission, and what is in your gift to change.
3. You need to be focused on the decisions you need to make. Yes you need the time and headspace to work your way through discussions about AI ethics with your team. This is highly emotive territory and people have strong opinions, which need an airing to move forward. As a leader I think you need to play a very specific role in these discussions, brokering agreement and making the decisions about what your charity is- and is not- going to do in AI. This is really hard to do when you may have your own views about AI, but I’ve seen some brilliant examples of leaders who have made decisions- and got buy-in for them- by being pragmatic, objective and calm. You have to take the heat out of it.
4. Use your strategy and your values as your northstar. There is no magic bullet, one size fits all playbook for AI ethics. One of the things that makes this hard is that the decisions you make are going to be slightly different for every charity. In that context, I think you have to go back to what you’re trying to achieve and what you stand for. If you don’t, the decisions you make about ethical issues will fall over at some point.
These conversations are not easy. They can be contentious and fiery, and they are only going to get more intense as AI technologies develop and the stakes are raised. But I’d always rather be in a room where charities are debating this stuff than not. It’s the rooms where leaders are silent on these issues that I worry about the most. Amid all the apocalyptic media coverage about AI, we all have more agency than we realise. We need to talk about AI ethics to make the right decisions about our charities’ futures. Because if we don’t start talking about ethics now, it may be too late.