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Generative AI Certificate Q&A: Main ethical challenge with implementing system to make criminal sentencing recommendations?

Question

You are a technical manager for a large city courthouse. The judges have asked you to implement a new system that will make criminal sentencing recommendations. As part of your testing, your team has the system make sentencing recommendations for past court convictions. Your team finds that the new system is much more likely to recommend longer sentences for some groups of people. What is the main ethical challenge with implementing this system?

A. Impartial judges should make sentencing recommendations. AI systems should not be involved.
B. The courthouse obviously does not have the technical expertise to improve the system.
C. The city courthouse might not be able to afford the service.
D. It magnifies existing biases rather than mitigating them.

Answer

D. It magnifies existing biases rather than mitigating them.

Explanation

The correct answer is D. It magnifies existing biases rather than mitigating them.

AI ethics are the principles and values that guide the development and use of AI systems to ensure that they are beneficial, trustworthy, and respectful of human dignity and rights. AI ethics are important because AI systems can have significant impacts on individuals, societies, and the environment, both positive and negative.

One of the main ethical challenges in AI is the problem of bias and discrimination, which means that AI systems may produce unfair or harmful outcomes for certain groups of people based on their characteristics, such as race, gender, age, or disability. Bias and discrimination in AI can arise from various sources, such as:

  • The data used to train or test the AI system, which may reflect historical or social biases or inequalities that exist in our society.
  • The design or implementation of the AI system, which may introduce or amplify biases due to human choices, assumptions, or errors.
  • The use or deployment of the AI system, which may result in biases due to inappropriate or malicious actions by users, operators, or adversaries.

Bias and discrimination in AI can have serious consequences for human rights, justice, and well-being, such as:

  • Violating the right to equality and non-discrimination, which is a fundamental principle of human dignity and a cornerstone of international human rights law.
  • Undermining the trust and confidence in the AI system and its creators or providers, which can affect the adoption and acceptance of the technology by the public and the stakeholders.
  • Reducing the quality and accuracy of the AI system and its outputs, which can affect its performance and usefulness for its intended purposes.

In this scenario, you are a technical manager for a large city courthouse. The judges have asked you to implement a new system that will make criminal sentencing recommendations. As part of your testing, your team has the system make sentencing recommendations for past court convictions. Your team finds that the new system is much more likely to recommend longer sentences for some groups of people.

The main ethical challenge with implementing this system is that it magnifies existing biases rather than mitigating them. This means that:

  • The system is trained on data that reflects the biases and inequalities that exist in the criminal justice system, such as racial disparities, socioeconomic factors, or judicial discretion.
  • The system produces recommendations that are unfair or discriminatory for certain groups of people based on their characteristics, such as race, gender, age, or disability.
  • The system affects the human rights and well-being of those people who are subject to its recommendations, such as their right to a fair trial, their right to liberty and security, or their right to rehabilitation.

Therefore, you should be careful not to implement this system without addressing its ethical issues and ensuring that it is fair, transparent, and accountable.

Reference

Generative AI Exam Question and Answer

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