Importance of Explainable AI

Trust in technology comes from understanding it. We fear what we do not understand and often reject it without giving it a chance and deep thought. Humans are born this way, hardwired to having neophobia (the fear of anything new) and xenophobia (the fear of the unknown). They are the primal instincts that have helped us survive for millennia.

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The way we do not understand AI today is also a cause for public fear. AI, in its current state, is mostly black-boxed. We feed it input and get an output, oblivious to how it did it. Of course, we will fear something that is essentially modern-day magic. Explainable AI (XAI) is the process of making artificial intelligence more understandable and less biased.

MACHINE LEARNING

Machine learning (ML) is the subset of AI that is used for classification purposes. ML is what your phone’s camera uses to recognize a cat from a dog or a human from a car. It is what filters spam email from legitimate email.

The most important and common goal for any AI (especially ML) is prediction accuracy. For example, you are applying for a loan. That application is fed into a prediction model. Based on the previous data it has of you, it will reject or accept your application. If you ask why your application was rejected, the programmer who implemented this AI would not have a concrete or satisfactory answer. They are only concerned with the accuracy of the AI successfully classifying you as eligible or ineligible for a loan. And this is the point where mistrust builds within you regarding technology.

THE NEED FOR EXPLAINABLE AI

Businesses that use AI have an (almost unfair) advantage if they use AI than those businesses that shy away from it. If they do not adapt to change, their business will be eaten up by a bigger fish. Some enterprises, surprisingly, are okay with this. You may find it absurd that a company would rather sink than succumb to advancements in tech. But what makes Explainable AI an essential catalyst in developing businesses today? In simpler terms, XAI provides us the opportunity to streamline our decision-making process.

In other words, XAI offers us the necessary reasoning to characterize our strengths and weaknesses to improve our decision-making steps. Furthermore, they can also determine how future algorithms will behave in the wake of technological development. From conducting predictive analysis to recording findings, XAI can help businesses to improve their organizational outcomes.

Another way to put Explainable AI in simpler terms is to explain its behavior to the user. Remember that technology is only a tool, so if organizations want to expand their horizons on the digital forefront, they must capitalize. By being closely linked with humans, XAI can help them understand the reasoning behind different actions.

This is where business owners can explore their alternative possibilities and venture on the path towards innovation through AI. However, there lies uncertainty behind these models. Of course, XAI provides the next step for the evolution of more sophisticated applications. In fact, you will find that you can unearth new possibilities by incorporating XAI into current business operations.

The need for explainable AI is critical. Keep in mind that countless markets are utilizing AI. From analyzing market trends to diagnosing diseases, AI is the hottest technological trend on offer today. But, what can one do if they have to deal with false positives and negatives?

In other words, imagine the model suggests that someone is sentenced to jail while the actual criminal roams free. Or imagine not getting diagnosed for an illness that you have and getting medication for a wrong diagnosis. This is why explainable AI is essential for organizations today!

In retrospect, AI makes and will continue to make decisions for us. However, we fear losing that control. We are not afraid of technology that aids us like the cars of today. We fear autonomous vehicles because we feel like placing our lives in the hands of a machine.

THE FEAR OF AI

For the case of Artificial Intelligence, it isn’t as clear cut. Why would you want something to operate within your business, or be a part of your daily life, if you don’t know how it works? Why would you trust yourself with something that you have no idea when it can turn against you one day? Most of this phobia comes from movies of the Sci-Fi genre where AI-powered machines have gone rogue and taken over us. And according to a PWC survey, 77% of CEOs feel that they will become vulnerable to how AI affects their business.

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

In 2018, things kicked into gear. The founder and chief of Facebook, Mark Zuckerburg, was the center of a controversy regarding data privacy violations and was brought to court. More governments around the world are taking data privacy and artificial intelligence regulations seriously. It opened the eyes of governments worldwide regarding technology abuse. To be ready and ensure safety and prioritize artificial intelligence being centered around humans. AI’s goal is to become a helping hand and a convenience for us, like how cars get us around places fast or how phones made communication universal.

The European Union revamped its laws to make sure technology is not abused within Europe.

The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is not something new. It was an old regulation law that was recently renewed and is in full effect to protect EU citizens from being violated.

Other countries are also following suit and incorporating such law in their legislation.

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