Trustworthy AI

Chapter 10Responsible

One of the reasons Elsa was such a competent Chief Operations Officer for BAM Inc. was that she always had a sense of the big picture. While departments throughout the company focused on meeting internal goals and aligning with enterprise strategy, Elsa saw BAM Inc. in the context of its history, its planned future, and how it impacted stakeholders, customers, and employees alike. For her, the persistent question was how to balance enterprise growth with ethical operations and plain good business.

While roaming the company HQ, looking for problems that needed solving, she wandered into the data science lab, where everyone was out to lunch. Elsa looked over the whiteboard covered in red and green marker. It was a list of ideas for AI systems that could be developed internally, deployed rapidly, and deliver outsized ROI. She read the list and saw a proposed chatbot to communicate with vendors, an automation system for populating various reports, and a shop‐floor recognition system to monitor for safety concerns.

But at the bottom of the list was an idea that left Elsa concerned: “customer personality assessment from internet scrape (search engine, social media, etc.)”

What in the world was that? BAM Inc. had a reputation for being an honest partner, and whatever “personality assessment” and “internet scrape” meant, Elsa was fairly sure it was not in line with the company values. With questions and concerns, she went in search of the data science team.