AI ethics is a topic that should be more widely discussed, especially in the era we live in now where AI is slowly being integrated into so many industries and generative AI tools are more than ever accessible. For episode 5 of The AI Purity Podcast, the featured guest is Dr. Ted Pedersen from the University of Minnesota Duluth.
Dr. Ted Pedersen is a professor of computer science who in recent years has become increasingly interested in researching the social impacts and ethical concerns with AI and natural language processing. Learn more about AI ethics, why it’s so important today, and how AI developers and users can mitigate risks and social biases.
Ted Pedersen’s Career Journey
Dr. Ted Pedersen completed his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. in Computer Science. He went on to become an assistant professor at California Polytechnic State University after completing his Ph.D. and would later become a principal investigator at the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute and a tenured professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
Dr. Ted’s interest in natural language processing and computational linguistics started from his interest in languages and learning German and Spanish as an undergraduate. That interest would eventually turn into learning compiler construction, parsing, and generating programming languages. His research history evolved from developing and evaluating a variety of natural language processing methods, research he no longer pursues, to becoming interested in the social impacts of natural language processing and artificial intelligence, specifically, the possible harms language technology has and the ethical foundations, or lack thereof, that lead to the development of these kinds of technology.
Importance Of AI Ethics
According to Coursera, AI ethics are a set of guiding principles to ensure AI technology is not only used responsibly but developed responsibly. Dr. Ted’s current research involves algorithmic racism and how AI amplifies and generates Islamophobia.
It is necessary to discuss the importance of ethics in artificial intelligence because it can include avoiding algorithmic bias and protecting the privacy of AI technology users and their data. Multiple stakeholders develop ethical principles for responsible AI use and development making it an interdisciplinary collaboration. These stakeholders include:
- Members of Academia: Researchers and professors are just some of the individuals who help research and provide ideas that support the decisions of larger entities like governments and corporations.
- Government Bodies: There are agencies and committees within governments that help with facilitating AI ethics.
- Intergovernmental entities: Large intergovernmental entities like the UN or the World Bank have the power to raise awareness and influence agreements like the 2021 global agreement on the Ethics Of AI that was adopted by 193 member states of UNESCO.
- Non-profit organizations: There are new non-profit organizations that have been established for diverse groups to have representation while developing AI technology and its risks.
- Private companies: Tech companies and industries that use AI technology also bear the responsibility to create their codes of conduct and ethics of artificial intelligence while using the technology to set standards for other companies.
When asked about his thoughts on how these stakeholders collaborate to discuss the ethical and social implications of artificial intelligence, Dr. Ted says it is “critical”. Dr. Ted cites his background in the academic world and says that “people in other disciplines, sociology, and political science, and ethnic studies, and black studies, and so forth have a whole different background that is just as deep and just as rich as mine in technology.”
Ethical Issues With AI
We asked Dr. Ted if there was something specific that prompted his shift in focus to investigating the potential harms of language technology and its broader implications. He said, “It felt like the right place to be.” He had a long history in natural language processing way before it had a lot of impact on the world. Today, as large language model technologies have become widely adopted he says it didn’t feel right not to investigate the harms these technologies have. He said, “I think people who have a computer science background and who can speak with at least some authority about those issues, it’s important to do so” and that’s what motivated him to essentially explore AI ethics.
When asked what are the ethical dilemmas associated with AI, it’s the kind of data used to train these large language models. Dr. Ted said a big example of there being a lack of ethical foundations in the development of language technology is the unrestricted use of content scraped by large language model companies, which violates copyright laws. Because of the amount of data gathered it can also include hateful and racist content. The idea that so much data is needed that it’ll take everything without being more careful is indefensible to Dr. Ted in the ethical sense.
Another example of ethical and moral issues of artificial intelligence that Dr. Ted shares is a lack of transparency. He says it can be worrisome when LLMs become more prevalent and the public no longer realizes it or sees them for what they are. It can shift the power balance to favor companies to whom these technologies are available or have the power to deploy them. “I think being more transparent about where they are and how they’re being used is important”, Dr. Ted says. And to remedy the data LLMs are being trained on, he says, “I really think that there needs to be some pretty significant changes in the content that these models are being trained on.”
How We Can Promote Ethical AI Use
The deployment and development of AI technology have not all been bad and it has its benefits. For people using large language model chatbots like ChatGPT, Dr. Ted says having conversations with it is a way to explore ideas and isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For students who use this technology, it’s a way to brainstorm and even get some sort of guidance. Dr. Ted says students can benefit from LLMs when they need that jolt to get their ideas going.
As someone who has been in the field since the 90s, Dr. Ted shares that it’s satisfying to see how much of an impact the industry has had in recent years. “I think all of us in the field believed that was a possibility, and that was often why we were doing it, that we thought language technology could help people and could make the world in some way better”, he says.
AI Purity is a company that was born out of a need to protect intellectual property and academic integrity. With its founders being part of the writing industry, they saw the widespread adoption of LLMs amongst students and decided to develop a tool that would help educators stop students from committing plagiarism and intellectual property theft. By providing an AI text detection tool, AI Purity is an organization that is committed to pioneering ethical AI use and development.
Read how AI Purity supports educators as more and more students use generative AI in ‘An Educator’s Role In Purifying Academia Of Unethical AI Use’.
Listen To The AI Purity Podcast
Dr. Ted Pedersen shares more about how he thinks we can achieve more transparency and accountability from those who develop, deploy, and use AI technologies and provides us with his thoughts on how effective using AI detectors like AI Purity would be in educational settings.
An advice Dr. Ted leaves with the podcast listeners is to not be overwhelmed or intimidated by these technologies. To learn more about how to navigate our current era of generative AI, make sure you listen to the full episode or get acquainted with these technologies by reading a past blog on “What Is Artificial Intelligence: Four Types and Ten Uses of AI”.
Stay updated with our podcast and watch a previous episode concerning AI ethics in the realm of journalism by listening to “AI’s Impact On Ethical Journalism & Disinformation with Marc Fawcett-Atkinson”.
For all your AI text detection needs, remember to choose AI Purity!