Ethics for sustainable AI adoption

This report by the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand explores the link between AI and ESG, pointing at the challenges ahead for finance and accounting professionals, as well as for society at large.

The extremely ambitious goals defined by international agencies worldwide are sure to imply a high risk of misrepresentation of green credentials by some organizations which might indulge in cherry-picking what to disclose or when to disclose it, or «via high profile public campaigns that implicitly or explicitly suggest certain actions, but where the subsequent fulfilment is absent».

AI can help to tackle this problem: for instance, natural language processing can be used to compare «company specific bottom-up data in the public domain with reported reductions in greenhouse gases emissions» in order to allow a more transparent comparison against publicly-stated goals.

More generally, whilst «the risk of unintended consequences is high with AI and the public interest must remain at the forefront of our considerations», proper ethics and governance embedded in both hard and soft regulation (including self-regulation) together with the risk-based approach which is the cornerstone of the EU approach can go a long way in preventing abuse.

Procurement of artificial intelligence is arguably the single most important area in which responsibility, accountability, and transparency will make the difference between risks and opportunities.