Despite its Benefits, AI Still Fails to Evoke People’s Trust

access_time July 24, 2019
by   TechmavenitAdmin
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has extended its reach to cover every sphere of human activity and has in the process contributed to make positive impacts in every sector where it has been involved. AI systems as we know learn from vast amounts of complex, unstructured data and turn these into actionable insights. During the past few years, machine learning and artificial intelligence have helped organizations across various sectors improve their performance substantially by providing accurate insights based on the data analyzed. AI promises to run critical aspects of our lives, from diagnosing disease to deciding when a plane needs repairing. It is possible that within the next couple of years due to the huge volume of data that can be gathered and analyzed, we would be in a position to make further advances in the field of medicine, banking and finance, retail, communications, climate etc. Despite all the valuable insights provided and the contributions made, some view the progress and contribution made by AI and ML with much skepticism. Recent instances show that people prefer to trust human capabilities to that of artificial intelligence. This is because, though it has provided over the years insights that have proven to be extremely accurate, there are instances where its conclusions have proven to be grossly wrong. Some businesses even consider the technology untrustworthy or dangerous. As an example people cite the case of a chatbot that posted racist and sexist messages on Twitter and AI programs that have exhibited racial and gender bias. However, despite all the inherent drawbacks, AI is here to stay and will continue providing us with insights that help us improve our performance. Additionally, we should not be oblivious to the fact that if we are ever to reap the full spectrum of social and industrial benefits from artificial intelligence, we will need to trust its efficacy in the very first place. Placing our trust on AI is not a development that is born overnight but matured over a period. It should be realized now that despite all its rapid advances, AI is very much still in its infancy and technology improvements are continuously being made. Additionally, mistakes could make the people doubt about the efficacy of AI systems. Even if AI based systems’ findings are correct, people generally are still reluctant to trust AI as was manifested in the IBM Watson for Oncology issue. IBM’s attempt to promote its super computer programme (Watson for Oncology) to cancer doctors was a PR disaster. This AI programme promised to deliver top- quality recommendations on the treatment of 12 cancers that accounted for 80% of the world’s cases. Though its recommendations were correct in every case, doctors were reluctant to accept its recommendations suspecting it to be wrong opinion. In addition, when a clash of opinion occurred doctors always relied upon their own findings over that of the IBM product Building trust One of the most important ways of gaining the trust of users to the AI based systems is by impressing upon the public that AI delivers the most appropriate recommendations and that AI systems are devoid of any bias. Nevertheless, this trust- building exercise can only be achieved gradually and people need to witness its abilities before they blindly support AI. In addition, it is seen that people having previous experience with AI will have a better disposition towards AI and trust its efficacy even more. It is also seen that the more you use other technologies such as the internet, the more you trust artificial intelligence.

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