Sector leaders say NFPs can be the ethical backbone of artificial intelligence

Judy Slatyer, Responsible AI Think Tank leader at the National AI Centre, said the sector has the “muscles and the skills” to make AI an important part of society – if it chooses to rise to the challenge.

Speaking at the recent Infoxchange Technology for Social Justice conference in Melbourne, Ms Slatyer said the value placed on human centred design, privacy, community and helping disadvantaged Australians access vital services, meant the sector has a solid ethical framework in place.

“I think we can lead the charge on creating AI which works in society and works in a good way,” she said.

“We have the muscles, we have the processes, we have the experiences to be able to shift AI to a space where it can actually enable society to do better things,” said Ms Slatyer, a former CEO of Red Cross Australia.

“We have to be very aware of the societal risks [from AI], as well as the organisational risks, but we as a sector, I believe, for the first time, have the muscles and capabilities to push other sectors to do this better.”

Ms Slatyer made the comments while participating in a conference panel titled "Effective and ethical use of AI in the NFP sector."

Other panel participants included Jessica Wilson, CEO of Good Things Foundation Australia; Lee Schofield, co-founder of Future for Now; and Chris Povey, CEO of legal services NFP Justice Connect. The session was moderated by Institute of Community Directors Australia (ICDA) journalist Matthew Schulz.

Ms Slatyer urged her audience of delegates from organisations across the sector to challenge whatever assumptions they may have made about AI and embrace the opportunities the new technology holds to do things differently to the benefit of the community.

“We have a role to play in making AI create a society that is more accessible for others, that is more equal, that is less discriminatory.

“That sounds a bit like Pollyanna-ish, but it's actually up to us what society we create, and we've got the licence to do it.”

Good Things Foundation Australia’s Jessica Wilson agreed.

“I think this is really an opportunity for us (sector) because it is a transformation of our society that we're going through, to really think about what kind of society do we want.

“We have a real opportunity and I think it’s our responsibility as a sector to really be a part of that conversation.”

Ms Wilson said the sector already played an important role helping disadvantaged Australians with low levels of digital literacy or limited access to digital services - such as many older Australians, First Nations people, people with disability and people with migrant backgrounds - to get the help they need.

“We are supporting the people who don’t have access to technology, who may not feel confident in using technology,” she said.

“At the Good Things Foundation, our focus is on how we support people to build their skills and confidence to be able to use technology.

“I think there's real opportunities with AI to overcome some of those barriers.”

Justice Connect CEO Chris Povey used the groundbreaking implementation of an AI legal aid program as an example of technology for social good.

The program was designed to make it easier for clients to access the right legal aid to suit their needs.

The game-changing technology relies on a “natural language” processing algorithm, trained using input from hundreds of lawyers, to enable help seekers to ask questions about their legal dilemmas in their own words.

The system has helped countless people in need gain access to legal support who would otherwise have gone without.

Mr Povey said building the AI model around people – both lawyers and clients - had been crucial to its success.

“When people come to us and have a legal issue, they will tell us in their own words what that issue is, and we know because we've asked people - human centred design - what parts of this process are they struggling with when it comes to pinpointing correctly what sort of a legal issue they have.”

While this would usually necessitate the involvement of a lawyer at this point, AI is enabling the dots to be joined faster for clients seeking help by matching their legal problem to the right solution.

“More and more need is growing all the time; our access to justice funding and support services are not keeping pace. This [AI] is a massive opportunity for us to do something about it,” said Mr Povey.

Ms Slatyer said the NFP sector's embrace of critical thinking to achieve purpose-led outcomes sets it apart from the corporate sector when it comes to the adoption of AI.

“We are very good at thinking in systems. We force ourselves through theories of change to understand, if we want to see this change in the world, what levers we can pull and how we can use those levers to create outcomes and impacts.”

Ms Slatyer said systems thinking is critical when it comes to the application of AI, not just in assessing not just what could go wrong, but what could go right.

This NFP systems-centred mindset has inspired work on an AI assessment tool at the National AI Centre.

“We [the NFP and charity sector] care deeply,” said Ms Slatyer.

“So, in every program and design and every initiative we work on, we're always thinking, how do we not do harm? How do we enable and empower others and not do harm. That’s a part of our DNA.”

Jess Wilson agreed.

“We're really good at putting people at the centre of the work that we do and thinking about what outcomes there are.”

She said this presented a golden opportunity to ensure solutions designed using AI are developed using input from the people they are intended to help.

“That's where I think we, as a not-for-profit sector, have a real opportunity to support the tech sector to access the people that we support to build those models that are actually going to be good for everyone.”

Mr Povey said that if the NFP sector did not step up to the challenge of influencing the way AI solutions are developed, others would.

“I think there's a risk if we don't take up this opportunity, others will come in and try and solve the challenge for us and I think that’s problematic given our values base and our purpose.”

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