“Adopting AI Responsibly: Crafting Guidelines for a Better Future”

by Keith Boswell, Chief Digital Officer

As a technologist and entrepreneur for the past 28 years, I’m wired to keep up. I committed early on to an infinite learning curve, knowing I wasn’t wired to sit back and do any task repeatedly for years on end. I deliberately chose new challenges that broadened my skill set and pushed my thinking forward. As AI applications spread further and faster, I find myself asking deeper questions in my work. 

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Did I inadvertently create digital clutter and noise along the way? Yes. 

Did I jump in with excitement while thinking I was doing “good” without understanding what it meant? Absolutely. 

Did the connected world I thought would bring so much progress and advances happen? No, not how I thought. 

When we talked about one-to-one marketing in the late 90s, we didn’t imagine what came next. The complex web of screens, devices, technologies, vendors and platforms. And the million and one ways they’re uniquely deployed by every business today. So we have a one to one to infinite number of possible problems to solve since everyone is operating their tech stack differently. 

Meanwhile, consumers are hunched over screens in isolation; a one to many doom scroll of a life. Emerging from COVID isolation, we should be stretched high to the sky. Instead, we huddle and peer at our thumbs mindlessly swiping up, over and over, pause, double tap, over and over. 

Watching the pace of growth between OpenAI and Nvidia’s earnings over the past 12 months is breathtaking and alarming to me and others. The tools are changing daily and the risk for misguided or mismanaged outcomes is growing even faster. 

Given that, I’m starting with my campsite first. As a technologist, a parent, and a human who wants a better world, I’ve spent the past few weeks working with longtime friend and colleague Paul Owen from Cyberdelic, crafting a set of guidelines for my consulting business. It’s definitely a first for me to focus on a “policy” for a company of one. But it feels vital to do anything to help avoid the inadvertent mistakes and lessons learned from the first waves of digital disruption we survived. 

Luckily the government put in significant effort over the past 5 years evaluating and documenting a national vision for AI. Did you even know that exists? The NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework (the guardrails for adopting AI responsibly) has laid the groundwork for Paul and I to embark on this quickly. 

So very soon, we’re going to publish how we’re using AI, what we plan to use it for in the future, and how we’re safeguarding our customers and our business today before the real AI storm hits. It includes the ethical foundation and high level data principles that every business moving into this new world should consider. And we plan to make it open-source. 

We’re aiming for a simple but comprehensive set of operating principles to ensure ethical, secure, and responsible use of AI technologies. It will lay out the importance of data management, stakeholder engagement, and adherence to legal standards. It’s intended to be a dynamic template for businesses aiming to implement AI principles effectively, with a focus on continuous improvement and adaptability.

I realized I needed to help lead the conversation around adopting AI rather than hoping someone invited us in. Today, we’re advancing at a pace that few of us are used to. And I really want us to get this next step right. 

My wiring hasn’t changed. I’m feeling drawn to a new era of public accountability of our collective progress. Like my volume and output is being turned up naturally to warn of the rushing waters ahead. If you’ve met me in person, you know volume isn’t typically a problem for me.  

We must take this next leap ahead together with intelligence, rigor, and accountability. I’m excited to share that we already have a few trusted partners who will be adopting and signing on as part of the v1 launch.

If you’re interested in previewing it, send me a note.