50 Association of Research Libraries Research Library Issues 299 2019 most advanced policies to date are found around the testing and use of autonomous vehicles.11 Given the significant impacts that AI will have, it will be important to establish policies that can provide a governing framework that promotes ethically responsible behaviors and accountability of AI systems. These policies will need to interoperate at an international level and be mutually recognized by countries impacted by the technologies. A key step in recognizing this may come from a recent alliance of France, Germany, and Japan to jointly fund research into AI that respects privacy and transparency.12 Their joint call for research proposals states that their goal is to “present the direction of future digital economy and society through technical progress in AI research to strengthen trust, transparency and fairness.”13 As noted by Brundage and Bryson, “The key question is not whether AI will be governed, but how it is currently being governed, and how that governance might become more informed, integrated, effective, and anticipatory.”14 While there is a great deal of incentive to pursue federal research funding to continually advance AI, there is a parallel responsibility to ensure that the university is using, teaching, and creating AI technologies responsibly. Issues such as understanding the provenance of the data used that drives automated decisions, being able to examine algorithms for bias, and being attentive to privacy or other ethics concerns are important things to address in all aspects of AI use and development. What measures can be taken to limit the likelihood that a university develops AI technology that leads to nefarious uses? How can campus users of AI-enabled systems guard against decisions that may be guided by biased algorithms? How does instruction that prepares university students for AI work ensure that they are sensitive to issues like bias, data provenance, privacy, and other ethical concerns Given the significant impacts that AI will have, it will be important to establish policies that can provide a governing framework that promotes ethically responsible behaviors and accountability of AI systems.
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