Technology

Is your AI accountable?

As it gathers pace and acceptance across multiple facets of our lives, artificial intelligence will only increase its autonomous decision-making abilities. But can you justify why it chose the paths it did?

23 July 2020

In his seminal management book, Black Box Thinking, Matthew Syed argues that many organisations fail to develop the ability to learn from their mistakes. Too many people accept poor outcomes as unfortunate rather than avoidable, and Syed encourages readers to engage in honest analysis, in order to reveal ways to improve procedures and generate success. He calls this ‘ black box thinking’ after the aircraft industry’s habit of using on-board recorders to capture all available data, for it to be accessed and learned from in the wake of an accident or incident.

Black boxes in airplanes are the last word in accountability and transparency, and few things escape their glare. Black box thinking is the preparedness to act on this information in order to improve the way things are done and prevent future mistakes.

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