The Intersection of AI and Ethics
From the Voices on Project Management Blog
by Cameron McGaughy,
Lynda Bourne, Kevin Korterud, Peter Tarhanidis, Conrado Morlan, Jen Skrabak, Mario Trentim, Christian Bisson, Yasmina Khelifi, Sree Rao, Soma Bhattacharya, Emily Luijbregts, David Wakeman, Ramiro Rodrigues, Wanda Curlee, Lenka Pincot, cyndee miller, Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres, Marat Oyvetsky
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Date
by Wanda Curlee
Imagine this: You’re walking in San Francisco, California, USA, when you spot an out-of-control trolley car headed toward a group of five people working on the track. You yell for them to get out of the way, but they don’t hear or see you. You’re standing next to a switch, which would send the trolley on a different track. But there’s one worker on the alternate track who, like the five other workers, doesn’t hear you or see the trolley.
You have a choice: Do you flip the switch? Do you take one life over five?
There is no right or wrong answer. It’s an ethical dilemma.
As project managers, we routinely face dilemmas, although they’re not typically as dramatic as the trolley scenario.
In project management, our answers to ethical dilemmas are typically driven by our moral compass or the company’s statement of ethics. Does that mean we are correct? Correct by whose standards?
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) could bring new factors into our decision-making process. As project managers, we will use AI to make decisions or assist us with decision making. What the AI tool(s) decide to present can drive our decision making one way or another. What happens if AI presents us information that compromises the safety and efficacy of the projects? What happens if AI makes a decision that seems innocent but has dire consequences based on the logic tree—results that you, as the project manager, might not be visible to?
When revealing an ethical issue in a project management logic tree, it would seem that the decision making should be automatically deferred to the project manager. But whose ethics are used to decide when there is an ethical dilemma? What may seem a common decision to you is an ethical one to someone else.
AI is coming. It most likely will arrive in small bits, but eventually, it will be part of the project management landscape. So take steps to prepare now. Make sure you help with AI decision making when you can; participate in studies and surveys on AI and project management; study ethical dilemmas in project management and understand how the AI tool(s) are coded for ethics.
Be ready because project management is getting ready to change, not by leaps, but by speeding bullets in the near—and not so near—future.
Posted
by
Wanda Curlee
on: November 19, 2018 02:58 PM |
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Comments (49)
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Sergio Luis Conte
Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations
Buenos Aires, Argentina
@Wanda, if you review the whole picture in self driven you will find that the human being is taken the critical decisions. I am working on that field. Self-driven cars are not self at all no matter you do not see a person sit at the car. Is the same principle that automatic pilot in airplanes. On the other side, AI always must have a human override by definition of AI. Could it not be done? Off course. But the same into anything we do or organizations do. Then, "do not blame" to AI. Nothing new below the sun.
Sergio Luis Conte
Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations
Buenos Aires, Argentina
And just to add some comment. I am a research and I am working with AI from 1989. Today, I am working finding a relation between AI and Quantum Computing to simulate human behavior mainly human being emotions that could impact on decisions (something similar you could see in the movie "I´m Robot"). This is not new but quantum computing have open a field of accelerate this type of things. So, while I do not own the true, take the point AI devices do not take the final decision just to make more research in the field. For example, military uses of AI like drones are a great example on that.
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Sergio - Thank you for the insight.
David Brezler
Owner| Brezler, LLC
White Plains, Ny, United States
Ethics, as such, are going to be the central issue surrounding AI. The publication The Atlantic produced an excellent video entitled “Ethics of AI” that describes a significant number of the issues with critical examples and lays out the question around regulation. What we know from experience - especially as pertains to the implementation of AI in areas such as recruitment and talent management is that the technology carries forward the ethics of the programmer, it has no inherent ethical matrix. Almost universally, those ethics are NOT in favor of diversity, gender-equity, or abilities that are slightly different than what has been programmed into the search paramters.
The machine itself has no ethics. They are imputed into the machine by its human programmers. The ethics problem at large is a human one. It should be addressed as how do we ensure the humans programming the AI systems are as ethically sound as we need them to be in order to guarantee the San Francisco street trolley doesn’t go out of control in the first place?
Sergio Luis Conte
Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations
Buenos Aires, Argentina
@Wanda, you are welcome. I have to say tank you because your interested article gave me the opportunity to participate and learned from you and others comments.
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Paul - Thanks for your post. The question is whose ethics do you use. Some scholars crowd sourced ethics and some cultures saved elderly over young, others saved a more educated person versus one that was not. So, when we say ethics there are some decisions to make. Yes, I agree easy items such as laws and regulations are easy to code. It is not an easy decision.
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
David - Thank you for your comment. I could not agree with you more. I will have to look for the article in The Atlantic.
AI is coming, as you say Wanda. We will see the new tools and techniques to make our project management decisions and how the AI deals with ethical conflicts... Good article, an important and highly topical issue.
Symon Thelappillil
Technical program manager| Intel Technology India Pvt Ltd.
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Machines will not have dilemma's. It would depend how the AI is programmed and trained
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Sergio - Thank you for your comment.
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Symon - Thanks for your comment. I could not agree with you more.
Kathy Castle
Author at https://www.projectcubicle.com/| Freelance
Tx, United States
AI is an interesting topic. Thank you for sharing.
Very Interesting article. Thanks Wanda for sharing such wonderful article.
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Peter Morris
PM Consultant, Author| INDUS Technology
San Antonio Texas, United States
AI is a myth. There won't be true AI until one computer is capable of creating another computer more complex than itself, which then creates a more complex computer until humans don't understand the logic behind the architecture. Hasn't happened, probably won't. Currently there is confusion between 'machine learning' and AI. The difference is machine learning is written in Python and AI is written in PowerPoint. And don't even get me started on people who say they can multi-process :)
Peter Morris
PM Consultant, Author| INDUS Technology
San Antonio Texas, United States
Oh, and I'd pull the switch and sacrifice the one for the five. It's not an ethical dilemma, you sacrifice the one for the good of the many. I learned that from Spock on Star Trek.
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Hello Peter - Thanks for your comments. Regarding your solution for the ethical dilemma is one solution, but not one that would be selected by all.
Thanks for sharing, machines sure can learn and be human like in decisions and their logic. PM need to be involved in the AI and its decision tree logic. However, this should not take away the human touch and the judgement call of the PM.
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