Developing AI Tools, Ethically
Okay, that sounds good, but what does it mean? I realize the use of AI is a hot button issue and want to start by acknowledging that, just like ethics in general, some areas can be a bit subjective. While the edges might be fuzzy, however, I think we can agree that certain things clearly fall into the ‘BAD’ bucket. Let me talk about what this means from my perspective.
Perhaps I should start with a brief introduction of who we are and why we care. Tech Audio is a collective of tech minded audio professionals that value the ethical use of AI. We’re an offshoot of Team Audio, a company made up of the very people we are creating these tools for. We’re small, we’re scrappy, and we’re ambitious. We’re tech nerds AND we’re artists trying to make fun/interesting/useful tools for people who work with audio (which, as I mentioned, also happens to be us). I believe that gives us a unique perspective into these matters. You might even say that we’re quite invested.
If you’ve been living under a rock for some reason (no judgement, that actually sounds kind of nice right about now) you may have missed some of the problems that have been in the news about how AI is being used. Here’s a very short and woefully incomplete list:
- AI is posing as real people.
- AI is ripping off the intellectual property (IP) of hard-working human artists.
- AI is being used to replace jobs previously held by real people.
- An overwhelming amount of AI-generated content ‘slop’ is dominating certain websites.
- AI is making decisions in lieu of human beings with potentially devastating consequences in areas like healthcare.
- If you’re trying to find a job, AI may well be the gatekeeper between you and employment with little to no oversight.
- MechaHitler - need I say more?
Maybe you already know people that have been directly affected by one or more of these things. It doesn’t stop there, of course, but that’s more than enough to keep me up at night.
AI is a very powerful tool…like scary powerful. And it’s only becoming more so. And it’s being integrated into everything. It’s a lot to process and, even being able to recognize the issues above, the consequences are difficult to fathom. I know I’m concerned. We all should be. I still work with AI, because in the end, it is a tool. A tool that has a lot of potential, both good and bad. I just don’t believe there is enough thought or oversight being put into how it is being used.
With all of this in mind, Tech Audio is trying to leverage AI technology to do some pretty cool stuff. For example, checkout the Reaspeech/Reaspeech Lite transcription tools that we released over the last year. We don’t want to replace human beings or rip off IP. Period. We want to help creators keep being creative while removing some of the drudgery that comes with their work. Our work. We live in both worlds.
I keep hearing the phrase ‘AI is evil’. I totally get it. That potential is there, and we are ultimately responsible for the outcome because we get to decide how this technology is used. Our team has been talking about this a LOT lately. How do we make sure we do ethical AI in a cutthroat capitalist environment where one is stuck between a rock and a ‘able to generate sustainable revenue’ place? It’s definitely harder to try to do the right thing but we’ve all emphatically agreed that we won’t sacrifice the former to achieve the latter.
Of course, we have to define what doing ‘ethical AI’ means in this context, which as I mentioned earlier isn’t going to be the same thing for everyone. To start, we’re trying to employ the following strategy: we determine, to the best of our abilities, how each potential product or service will end up affecting human creators (☝️ like us). If it seems like it could be harmful then we don’t do it.
Simple? Arbitrary? Well, yeah. Were you expecting some earth-shattering insight that will save humanity from this whole mess? I wish I had that. We’re still trying to figure out how to navigate in this strange AI-riddled landscape and how we can help champion this cause. AI isn’t going to go away, but at Tech Audio we get to choose what we do with it and we don’t take that responsibility lightly.
I’m grateful to work with such a wonderful, ethically minded, creative, group of people. But you don’t have to take my word for any of this. We welcome your engagement, and we hope all you audio enthusiasts/techies/artists/dynamic humanoids will be part of this discussion. Please, question us. Challenge us. Help us. We’re trying our best but we’re only human, and we plan to keep it that way. You can find links to all our social media at the bottom of the page 👇.