Booz Allen has become an outspoken leader in the ethics of new technologies, especially as part of the emerging dialogue around ethics and artificial intelligence (AI). As a leader in AI, we are putting our principles into practice as we take AI from the lab into the enterprise.
Every day, AI is advancing and becoming a greater and more integrated part of both our personal and professional lives. Innovations in machine learning, high-performance computing, and more advanced computer reasoning are powering breakthroughs in health and science, helping airlines run more efficiently, and assembling new defensive capabilities to deter security threats at home and abroad.
But the world is also rapidly approaching a future where AI could be used to suggest whether youʼre stopped by police, whether youʼre hired for a job, what mortgage loan rate youʼre offered, or whether youʼre admitted to the school of your choice. These applications could have real consequences if a tool contains errors or unintended bias, raising serious ethical and policy concerns that must be addressed head-on.
At Booz Allen, weʼre driving toward a future where advancements in AI are shaped by a set of guiding principles borrowed from human subject research—beneficence, justice, and respect. We are calling for an approach where ethics are not simply tacked on at the end, but rather drive the approach to this transformative technology.
We believe the potential positive applications for AI far outweigh the threats, and by beginning with ethics and safety engineering in mind, we aim to ensure that AI is beneficial, not harmful, to human welfare.
Booz Allen is bringing AI directly to the mission, with a commitment to preserving human rights, upholding democratic values, and conforming to international law of armed conflict. Our efforts are guided by five key principles: maintaining an acute awareness of the societal and environmental impacts of AI systems and applications; ensuring that people remain at the core of every AI system and that they retain ultimate control; requiring that AI teams be meaningfully diverse and inclusive; intentionally designing AI systems with built-in mechanisms for tracing data, model accountability, and auditability; and ensuring all AI system designs and practices are rooted in deep scientific and technological rigor.
Ethical AI requires more than just a set of principles—putting them into action requires: formally translating our ethos into AI systems design; developing and implementing both governance and computational toolkits to address technical complexities like bias and transparency; and establishing a commitment from leaders and inventors to the long-term potential and value of a values-based design approach.
“We must design systems and models that help create the trust we want to see in the world.” said Steve Escaravage, Booz Allen Senior Vice President. “As the U.S. Governmentʼs largest AI contractor, we take seriously our role in forging the future of ethical adoption to maintain and expand American leadership in AI.”
AI will undoubtedly provide untold benefits for the future, but its very power and complexity make it essential that safeguards for ethical use, governance protocols, and risk mitigation be considered from the earliest stage. Ethical AI is critical to our clientsʼ future and our leading AI experts want to safely and ethically drive innovation and spur adoption of emerging technologies, in line with our growth strategy of operating at the nexus of technology and our clientsʼ missions.
