Global AI Expert Dr Catriona Wallace: “The Main Problem With AI Is That It Is Unregulated”

Global AI Expert Dr Catriona Wallace: “The Main Problem With AI Is That It Is Unregulated”

Dr Catriona Wallace is an expert in the field of Artificial Intelligence and the Metaverse and is an adjunct professor, keynote speaker and founder of the Responsible Metaverse Alliance.

Her business, Flamingo AI, was the second only woman-led (CEO & Chair) business ever to list on the Australian Stock Exchange. She will be speaking to Australia’s best and brightest in Media and Marketing at this years’ iMedia Modern Media Summit where she will be speaking to how marketers can use AI responsibly.

Here she speaks to B&T about some of the risks and opportunities posed by AI.

“We’re Already Well Affected By AI”

Every time there’s a great technological advancement – the world seems to polarise into two camps. This is true for AI.

In one camp, we have the proud and slightly-blinded pioneers, enthusiastically declaring that everyone and their dog should have adopted AI yesterday, and on the other we have the prophets of doom, quietly muttering that AI will be the death of us all.

The problem is, whilst other great advancements such as the steam engine and the printing press were largely out of the hands of your average flawed human being, the same cannot be said for AI.

In fact, as Dr. Catriona Wallace says, all of us are already in touch with AI on a regular basis.

“At the moment, on average, we adults interact with AI 28 times a day, and teenagers interact with AI around 150 times a day. So we’re already well affected by AI”.

With the technology already so embedded in our lives, the stakes to use it responsibly are high, especially for marketers who are communicating with large quantities of people on a daily basis.

Young woman using smart phone,Social media concept.

So Do We Need To Be Worried About AI?

Dr Catriona Wallace is neither a blinded pioneer nor a prophet of doom. She recognises the huge benefit that AI can pose to society (up 30 per cent of our daily tasks on average could be done by AI, she says), but she also acknowledges that there are risks that we need to consider.

“The main problem with AI is that it is unregulated.”

This unregulated nature means that it poses potential risks.

Whilst some governmental bodies such as the EU are looking to put regulation in place there are “no laws or governance, internationally for how AI is developed or deployed”.

Technology has been shaping the landscape for some time, the difference with AI, however, is that the algorithms are consistently developing.

“AI is one of the most powerful and scalable technologies that we have. That’s a challenge. The other challenge with AI is that when these algorithms and the models that create the automation do what we call either supervised or unsupervised learning, the machines can actually start to learn and behave in ways that the creators of the original algorithms don’t understand”.

That is “particularly dangerous”.

Naturally, when it comes to technology doing things we don’t understand, most of our minds will race to technology turning on us and taking over the world – but Wallace gives a much more concrete (and less scary example).

She recently asked Chat GPT to write her bio for her. At first, things seemed good – “it did about a half page and it said, Dr. Catriona Wallace is an expert on the metaverse and AI and is the founder of the responsible Metaverse Alliance”.

Things took a fictional turn, however, when it got to her authorship. Chat GPT went on to say that was the “author of a book called Customer Experience: The New Way”.

This was interesting, Wallace said, given she’d never written a book called Customer Experience: The New Way.

Essentially the AI had scanned everything on the internet about her, seen she had written a book, not been able to find the name of it, and “confidently” told her she’d written a book that didn’t exist.

“That was just my bio, that’s not harmful,” Wallace says, laughing. “But think about that when AI is built into military models, or into predicting who gets bank credit or not, or into who and how health care should be rolled out. These unintended consequences are potentially very damaging”.

How can governments and businesses use it responsibly?

 

With AI being so new, I ask Wallace if it’s possible to know how to regulate something that is still developing.

“I don’t think governments know enough,” she says.

“If we look at governments, general leaders, but we also look at the leaders in Australia, who sit on the boards of the ASX companies, not many of them are technologists, most of them are accountants or lawyers or salespeople. Very few of them are technologists. So I do believe that most of our politicians and government leaders are not particularly technology literate”.

Our current minister, who Wallace works with, Ed Husic, is “not bad” she says. He recently arranged a meeting with Australia’s AI experts to talk about Australia’s response to generative AI.

Whilst businesses are aware of the importance of responsible AI, there is a big gap between ideas and execution.

Research shows that 84 percent of business leaders “think that they should be doing responsible AI” but only about “26 per cent have actually physically got processes and techniques in place to do it”.

What Actually Is Responsible AI?

There’s a very clear business benefit to understanding AI – as Wallace says “We know that organisations that are mature with AI strategy outperform those who are not”.

Whilst around 60 per cent of Australian businesses do have some kind of AI strategy in place, very few of them have approached it as a responsible AI-first strategy because they don’t know too much about what responsible AI is.

So what actually is it?

“When we talk about responsible AI, we’re really talking about the need to have AI systems that are transparent, ethical, that there’s accountability, and that the systems and the design and deployment of the systems adhere to laws and rules and regulations, but also societal norms. That’s what we’re talking about with responsible AI”.

“And then when we look at what a model for Responsible AI is, it’s around governance, data security, privacy, it’s around leadership, it’s around culture. It’s monitoring, auditing, reviewing, and putting in tools to ensure that the AI is acting responsibly. So there are six core categories that responsible AI sits in, it’s not just the ethics of AI, ethical AI is a component of a responsible AI strategy”.

What are some of the ethical risks?

One of the main problems with AI is that it’s based on past data, which, in a world where gender and racial equality is finally getting the attention it deserves, can be problematic.

“So the challenge that we have with AI is that it’s been trained on existing historical data sets that already have some of society’s unfairness and biases built into it. And so when we come to looking at financial data, then if women have not been well represented, or indigenous groups or minority groups have not been well represented in the data sets that are then training algorithms that are going to do future credit or loans, then we’re just hard-coding society’s existing ills into the machines that will be automating what we do”.

Whilst there are methods of ensuring the data that AI uses is representative of the population, Wallace warns that some of the methods being used by Silicon Valley are unethical in themselves.

“There are very wealthy Silicon Valley organisations that outsource the cleaning of the data set to Kenya. So there’s a Kenyan outsource company that has mostly women going through all of the Internet data, including all of the reprehensible hate speech abuse, to identify those tags on that type of content on the Internet so that the chat GPT doesn’t pick it up and use it and become a racist misogynist machine.

“So who is that doing that work? Well, right at the moment, low paid, so pay between $1.32 and $2 an hour, Kenyan workers, and to me, that’s horrendous.”

diversity

AI could be a problem for diversity and inclusion

What Opportunities Does AI Create?

Despite the risks, there are still plenty of reasons to get AI right. As Wallace says “AI is the fastest-growing technology sector in the world”. In 2022 it was valued at $327 billion and it continues to grow with much more investment going into it.

Across the world “22 per cent of companies that aren’t able to fill jobs with humans because then they not getting the right talent or labour force, and now looking to AI to fill those jobs”.

In the future, 30 per cent of the work any of us do on a daily basis could be done by AI, Wallace says – meaning a huge productivity boost.

“That’s mostly where the value of AI will come in and affect how we humans do our work”.

Dr Catriona Wallace will be speaking live on AI at this years’ iMedia Modern Media Summit, the event that sees media agencies partner with their brand clients and coming together to be inspired and informed over three days on the Gold Coast. Leading media and marketing professionals interested in attending the summit need to register an application of interest via the website. Dr Catriona Wallace joins an expert speaking line-up that includes Sarla Fernando, Head of Regulatory & Advocacy for ADMA, renowned consultant for advertising and media efficiency; Robert Brittain and the hugely popular Gus Balbontin, advisor, adventurer and alternative futurist, along with many others.

 




Please login with linkedin to comment

artificial intelligence dr catriona wallace

Latest News

B&T’s Search For Australia’s Greatest Ad Heads To Channel 7
  • Advertising

B&T’s Search For Australia’s Greatest Ad Heads To Channel 7

B&T went through the looking glass this morning, with editor-in-chief David Hovenden (above) appearing on Channel 7’s The Morning Show to get the general public involved in our search for Australia’s Greatest Ad. Hovenden chatted with Kylie Gillies and stand-in host Matt Doran about what makes a great ad and showcasing some of our favourites […]

by B&T Magazine

B&T Magazine
Opinion: The Tall Poppy’s Kate Smither On The DBA Dilemma
  • Opinion

Opinion: The Tall Poppy’s Kate Smither On The DBA Dilemma

The science is not in question – smarter people than I, with far more data, have codified it. The logic is not up for grabs…it makes sense that creating mental shortcuts to your brand keeps you at the top of your mind. Lead image: Kate Smither – Owner, The Tall Poppy I wouldn’t even take […]

Opinion

by B&T Magazine

B&T Magazine
African woman using a cellphone in an office alone
  • Marketing

Ortto & Tall Bob Partner To Deliver Better SMS & MMS For Australian & NZ Businesses

Two Australian-born technology providers have joined forces to bring more power and choice to marketers in Australia and New Zealand with mobile messaging that is more local, cost-effective, and integrated. It’s a partnership that sees two Australian software companies come together to deliver a world-class mobile-first solution for marketers building data-driven, personalised, omnichannel campaigns. While […]

Slew Of New Hires At Snap Inc.
  • Media

Slew Of New Hires At Snap Inc.

Snap Inc. has announced a number of new recruits. B&T unaware if it positively impacted SEEK's share price.

Reddit Gets Playful Brand Refresh
  • Technology

Reddit Gets Playful Brand Refresh

This will be of interest to any Reddit fans, graphic designers or lovers of an orange so bright it burns the retinas.

Zitcha & Broadsign Partner To Drive Global In-Store Retail Media Market
  • Advertising

Zitcha & Broadsign Partner To Drive Global In-Store Retail Media Market

Zitcha and Broadsign have teamed up to integrate the Broadsign out-of-home (OOH) advertising platform with Zitcha’s retail media platform. The collaboration empowers retailers to maximise and monetise in-store digital display networks and enables advertising partners to easily view and book available in-store inventory and review campaign performance alongside the retailer’s other media channels. With the […]

Double Rainbouu & 7-Eleven Launch Exclusive Summer Fashion Label
  • Marketing

Double Rainbouu & 7-Eleven Launch Exclusive Summer Fashion Label

Today, 7-Eleven has announced a one-of-a-kind collaboration with the popular Sydney-based anti-resort wear label Double Rainbouu. Dropping tomorrow, December 1, just in time for summer, this limited-edition capsule will infuse the fashion brand’s rebellious spirit with a distinctly iconic 7-Eleven flavour. The unisex collection features five must-have styles comprising two signature Hawaiian shirts, a peaked cap, a bucket hat […]

realestate.com.au Extends Major Partnership With Sydney Swans
  • Marketing

realestate.com.au Extends Major Partnership With Sydney Swans

Australian property site realestate.com.au has announced the extension of its partnership with the Sydney Swans for two further seasons. Lead image: Tom Harley, Owen Wilson and Tom McCartin realestate.com.au has partnered with the Swans since 2016 and has called the back of the club’s iconic guernsey home since becoming a major partner in 2020. This […]

Avenue C Nabs Paula Lopes From KINESSO
  • Marketing

Avenue C Nabs Paula Lopes From KINESSO

Leading independent media agency, Avenue C, is thrilled to announce the appointment of Paula Lopes as Digital Director. Paula, a seasoned professional with over 17 years experience in the media industry, joins Avenue C from her role as Chief Operations Manager of KINESSO (merger of Reprise, Matterkind, and Kinesso specialities).

oOh!Media Fuses People & Performance At National Annual Revenue & Growth Conference
  • Advertising

oOh!Media Fuses People & Performance At National Annual Revenue & Growth Conference

oOh!media brought together more than 260 of its sales, operations, commercial, marketing, finance and leadership teams last week for its national annual revenue and growth conference. Held over two days at the picturesque Rydges Resort in Hunter Valley, the event ‘Fusing people and performance’ focussed on how to build a high-performance mindset and how it […]