Machine learning ethics: what you need to know and what you can do

Ethics is, without a doubt, one of the most important topics to emerge in machine learning and artificial intelligence over the last year. While the reasons for this are complex, it nevertheless underlines that the area has reached technological maturity. After all, if artificial intelligence systems weren’t having a real, demonstrable impact on wider society, why would anyone be worried about its ethical implications?

It’s easy to dismiss the debate around machine learning and artificial intelligence as abstract and irrelevant to engineers’ and developers’ immediate practical concerns. However this is wrong. Ethics needs to be seen as an important practical consideration for anyone using and building machine learning systems.

If we fail to do so the consequences could be serious. The last 12 months has been packed with stories of artificial intelligence not only showing theoretical bias, but also causing discriminatory outcomes in the real world. Amazon scrapped its AI tool for hiring last October because it showed significant bias against female job applicants. Even more recently, last month it emerged that algorithms built to detect hate speech online have in-built biases against black people.

Although these might seem like edge cases, it’s vital that everyone in the industry takes responsibility. This isn’t something we can leave up to regulation or other organizations the people who can really affect change are the developers and engineers on the ground.

It’s true that machine learning and artificial intelligence systems will be operating in ways where ethics isn’t really an issue - and that’s fine. But by focusing on machine learning ethics, and thinking carefully about the impact of your work you will ultimately end up building better systems that are more robust and have better outcomes.

So with that in mind, let’s look at the practical ways to start thinking about ethics in machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Machine learning ethics and bias

The first step towards thinking seriously about ethics in machine learning is to think about bias. Once you are aware of how bias can creep into machine learning systems, and how that can have ethical implications, it becomes much easier to identify issues and make changes - or, even better, stop them before they arise.

Bias isn’t strictly an ethical issue. It could be a performance issue that’s affecting the effectiveness of your system. But in the conversation around AI and machine learning ethics, it’s the most practical way of starting to think seriously about the issue.

Types of machine learning and algorithmic bias

Although there are a range of different types of bias, the best place to begin is with two top level concepts. You may have read lists of numerous different biases, but for the purpose of talking about ethics there are two important things to think about.

Pre-existing and data set biases

Pre-existing biases are embedded in the data on which we choose to train algorithms. While it’s true that just about every data set will be ‘biased’ in some way (data is a representation, after all - there will always be something ‘missing), the point here is that we need to be aware of the extent of the bias and the potential algorithmic consequences.

You might have heard terms like ‘sampling bias’, ‘exclusion bias’ and ‘prejudice bias’ - these aren’t radically different. They all result from pre-existing biases about how a data set looks or what it represents.

Technical and contextual biases

Technical machine learning bias is about how an algorithm is programmed. It refers to the problems that arise when an algorithm is built to operate in a specific way. Essentially, it occurs when the programmed elements of an algorithm fail to properly account for the context in which it is being used.

A good example is the plagiarism checker Turnitin - this used an algorithm that was trained to identify strings of texts, which meant it would target non-native English speakers over English speaking ones, who were able to make changes to avoid detection.

Although there are, as I’ve said, many different biases in the field of machine learning, by thinking about the data on which your algorithm is trained and the context in which the system is working, you will be in a much better place to think about the ethical implications of your work. Equally, you will also be building better systems that don’t cause unforeseen issues.

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The importance of context in machine learning

The most important thing for anyone working in machine learning and artificial intelligence is context. Put another way, you need to have a clear sense of why you are trying to do something and what the possible implications could be.

If this is unclear, think about it this way: when you use an algorithm, you’re essentially automating away decision making. That’s a good thing when you want to make lots of decisions at a huge scale.

But the one thing you lose when turning decision making into a mathematical formula is context. The decisions an algorithm makes lack context because it is programmed to react in a very specific way. This means contextual awareness is your problem. That’s part of the bargain of using an algorithm.

Context in data collection

Let’s look at what thinking about context means when it comes to your data set.

Step 1: what are you trying to achieve?

Essentially, the first thing you’ll want to consider is what you’re trying to achieve. Do you want to train an algorithm to recognise faces? Do you want it to understand language in some way?

Step 2: why are you doing this?

What’s the point of doing what you’re doing? Sometimes this might be a straightforward answer, but be cautious if the answer is too easy to answer. Making something work more efficiently or faster isn’t really a satisfactory reason. What’s the point of making something more efficient? This is often where you’ll start to see ethical issues emerge more clearly. Sometimes they’re not easily resolved. You might not even be in a position to resolve them yourself (if you’re employed by a company, after all, you’re quite literally contracted to perform a specific task).

But even if you do feel like there’s little room to maneuver, it’s important to ensure that these discussions actually take place and that you consider the impact of an algorithm. That will make it easier for you to put safeguarding steps in place.

Step 3: Understanding the data set

Think about how your data set fits alongside the what and the why. Is there anything missing? How was the data collected? Could it be biased or skewed in some way?

Indeed, it might not even matter. But if it does, it’s essential that you pay close attention to the data you’re using.

It’s worth recording any potential limitations or issues, so if a problem arises at a later stage in your machine learning project, the causes are documented and visible to others.

The context of algorithm implementation

The other aspect of thinking about context is to think carefully about how your machine learning or artificial intelligence system is being implemented. Is it working how you thought it would? Is it showing any signs of bias?

Many articles about the limitations of artificial intelligence and machine learning ethics cite the case of Microsoft’s Tay. Tay was a chatbot that ‘learned’ from its interactions with users on Twitter. Built with considerable naivety, Twitter users turned Tay racist in a matter of days. Users ‘spoke’ to Tay using racist language, and because Tay learned through interactions with Twitter users, the chatbot quickly became a reflection of the language and attitudes of those around it.

This is a good example of how the algorithm’s designers didn’t consider how the real-world implementation of the algorithm would have a negative consequence. Despite, you’d think, the best of intentions, the developers didn’t have the foresight to consider the reality of the world into which they were releasing their algorithmic progeny.

Read next: Data science vs. machine learning: understanding the difference and what it means today

Algorithmic impact assessments

It’s true that ethics isn’t always going to be an urgent issue for engineers. But in certain domains, it’s going to be crucial, particularly in public services and other aspects of government, like justice. Maybe there should be a debate about whether artificial intelligence and machine learning should be used in those contexts at all. But if we can’t have that debate, at the very least we can have tools that help us to think about the ethical implications of the machine learning systems we build.

This is where Algorithmic Impact Assessments come in. The idea was developed by the AI Now institute and outlined in a paper published last year, and was recently implemented by the Canadian government.

There’s no one way to do an algorithmic impact assessment - the Canadian government uses a questionnaire “designed to help you assess and mitigate the risks associated with deploying an automated decision system.” This essentially provides a framework for those using and building algorithms to understand the scope of their project and to identify any potential issues or problems that could arise.

Tools for assessing bias and supporting ethical engineering

However, although algorithmic impact assessments can provide you with a solid conceptual grounding for thinking about the ethical implications of artificial intelligence and machine learning systems, there are also a number of tools that can help you better understand the ways in which algorithms could be perpetuating biases or prejudices.

One of these is FairML, “an end-to- end toolbox for auditing predictive models by quantifying the relative significance of the model's inputs” - helping engineers to identify the extent to which algorithmic inputs could cause harm or bias - while another is LIME (Local Interpretable Model Agnostic Explanations). LIME is not dissimilar to FairML. it aims to understand why an algorithm makes the decisions it does by ‘perturbing’ inputs and seeing how this affects its outputs.

There’s also Deon, which is a lot like a more lightweight, developer-friendly version of an algorithmic assessment impact. It’s a command line tool that allows you to add an ethics checklist to your projects.

All these tools underline some of the most important elements in the fight for machine learning ethics. FairML and LIME are both attempting to make interpretability easier, while Deon is making it possible for engineers to bring a holistic and critical approach directly into their day to day work. It aims to promote transparency and improve communication between engineers and others.

The future of artificial intelligence and machine learning depends on developers taking responsibility

Machine learning and artificial intelligence are hitting maturity. They’re technologies that are now, after decades incubated in computer science departments and military intelligence organizations, transforming and having an impact in a truly impressive range of domains. With this maturity comes more responsibility. Ethical questions arise as machine learning affects change everywhere, spilling out into everything from marketing to justice systems.

If we can’t get machine learning ethics right, then we’ll never properly leverage the benefits of artificial intelligence and machine learning. People won’t trust it and legislation will start to severely curb what it can do. It’s only by taking responsibility for its effects and consequences that we can be sure it will not only have a transformative impact on the world, but also one that’s safe and for the benefit of everyone.