Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming the key technology of the future. AI is a machine’s ability to simulate human behaviours such as reasoning, planning and creativity, especially through learning algorithms. Companies are increasingly using AI to develop more automated, personalized and “customer-oriented” services. AI also opens up new opportunities to enhance and facilitate the detection and reduction of risk, fraud and to promote enhanced regulatory compliance.
However, its use generates risk, as illustrated by Deloitte in one of its studies:
• Quality, quantity and relevance of the data used. The results of AI systems hinge on the quality and quantity of the data. If the datasets used to build the algorithms contain biases, the generated algorithm is likely to reflect these biases as well, or even amplify them.
• The opacity of operation (black box when talking about AI). Contrary to the old generations of AI, where the systems made very clear decisions that were established by humans, the new generations will rely on very complex statistical methods, based on thousands of parameters. All these factors will make the final decision difficult to interpret, or even impossible to explain by humans.
• Possible dysfunctions. Algorithms do not have the capacity for conceptual and common sense understanding specific to humans, and which are necessary to evaluate radically new situations.
As the latest reports from the World Economic Forum point out, the topic of artificial intelligence is reaching a turning point. In the short term, it seems important that the development of artificial intelligence meet the minimum criteria of governance, ethics and risk management. Also according to Deloitte2, this reflection should focus on proving the reliability of the algorithms used (from the perspective of their internal and external verification), the intelligibility of the models and the interactions between humans and intelligent algorithms. It is therefore crucial that the governance committee’s mandate be reviewed in order to incorporate this reflection and develop a code for the use of artificial intelligence to assure shareholders and interested parties (stakeholders) that its development and use are carried out by placing humans at the core of the machine, by guaranteeing the veracity, security and confidentiality of the data that feed it and by regulating the algorithms so that they integrate diversity and overcome biases that arise in decision-making, among others.