#208 How Ethical AI is more than an obligation; It is an opportunity with Natalie Rouse, General Manager of Eliiza and Brendan Nicholls, Practice Lead, Machine Learning Engineering

It’s safe to say that most people in data science want to do the right thing. However, AI ethics cannot just be an afterthought done in the service of regulatory obligations. It needs to be baked into the way the organisation looks at data, at every level.

How organisations can achieve that is the focus of our latest podcast, with Natalie Rouse, General Manager of Eliiza and Brendan Nicholls, the Practice Lead, Machine Learning Engineering, joining us to discuss the topic. Eliiza is a data consultancy, and Rouse and Nicholls are right in the trenches with their customers.

There are many questions that organisations should be asking of their data, particularly with regards to how to ensure that it’s free of bias and that it’s being used accurately. As Nicholls and Rouse discuss on the podcast, the questions range from how the data’s being collected, where it came from, whether it accurately reflects demographics, and what the range of uses of the data is, based on the collection policy.

These are all relatively straightforward things to think about, but nonetheless, they’re often overlooked, especially within teams that are highly technically orientated. As the Eliiza team acknowledge, one of the challenges in data science is that teams are technical and want to “reduce” everything to numbers that can be measured. However, to fully embrace ethical AI, it becomes important to embrace the ambiguities and the non-measurable side of the discussion as well.

Eliiza is deeply engaged in helping its customers achieve this understanding of ethical AI, and regularly hosts monthly MLOps meetups in Melbourne through the MLOps Community, which hosts meetups around the world - 22 different locations - to facilitate knowledge exchange. It will also be holding a hackathon around healthcare shortly to encourage ethical AI in that area.

Finally, Nicholls will be presenting at the Scaling AI with MLOps event in Sydney on October 25 on why Ethical AI matters. Tune into this podcast and drop into his presentation to gain a deep understanding on why ethical AI is not just an obligation but, when done right, an opportunity.

Enjoy the show!

Thank you to our sponsor, Talent Insights Group!

Join us in Melbourne for Scaling AI with MLOPS:  https://www.datafuturology.com/mlops

Join our Slack Community: https://join.slack.com/t/datafuturologycircle/shared_invite/zt-z19cq4eq-ET6O49o2uySgvQWjM6a5ng

Links

Eliiza https://eliiza.com.au/

Hackathon: https://www.intellihq.com.au/medical-datathon/

AI Australia Podcast: https://eliiza.com.au/learn/ai-australia-podcast/

MLOPs community: https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/melbourne-mlops-community1/

Connect with Natalie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-rouse-7115b15a/

Connect with Brendan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nichollsbrendan/

Read the full podcast episode summary here.

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