AI Ethics
and Governance

What is AI Ethics?

Organizations are eager to capitalize on the countless new artificial intelligence innovations emerging across every sector. These opportunities can be lucrative and innovative, but they must be done responsibly. AI ethicists are trained experts that develop internal and external guidelines to ensure that organizations are fair to their customers, stakeholders, and the public when using or overseeing these novel technologies.

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Ethicists can serve AI projects in a few different ways:

AI alignment steers AI toward people-centered goals. First, we determine what constraints and goals are in line with company values or the public good—for example, protecting privacy when using AI to assess customer profiles or promoting wellbeing among employees. Then, we work directly with developers to program these guidelines into a model.

AI audits and assurance prepare organizations to comply with regulatory standards and certify that their systems are safe, fair, reliable, and accountable. AI systems face numerous well-known risks. For instance, they may be trained illegally on copyrighted data, generate false information, or discriminate against marginalized groups. AI assurance helps organizations assess the risks of the products they develop or deploy, establish protocols for mitigating those risks, and secure certifications needed to demonstrate compliance with accepted standards.

AI policy and governance considers the policy choices that organizations face regarding AI and the human oversight that ought to be in place. Integrating AI into business operations or products involves numerous trade-offs that ethicists can forecast and weigh. Often, AI and machine learning systems are put in place to aid or even replace human decision-makers, but proper policy and governance structures can help ensure accountability, responsibility, and oversight.

Why Choose Our AI Ethics Consulting Services?

Some benefits of our services include:

Custom Safeguards: Get tailored solutions to your organization’s specific needs.

Reduce Risk & Build Trust: Minimize bias, ensure fairness, and safeguard privacy in your AI systems.

Enhance Organizational Reputation: Gain customer and stakeholder confidence with a demonstrated commitment to responsible AI development.

Navigate Regulations: Stay compliant with evolving AI regulations and industry standards.

Maximize ROI: Mitigate potential harm and costly missteps for long-term success.

Our Comprehensive AI Ethics Consulting Approach

When we work with you, we will help you develop procedures like:

AI Ethics Assessment: Identify potential ethical risks and strengths in your current AI practices.

Human-Centered AI Design: Prioritize human values and ensure AI systems are fully aligned to aligned to serve people. 

AI Policy & Governance Framework: Create a clear roadmap for ethical AI development and deployment, including structures for determining human responsibility, oversight, and decision-making. 

Continuous Monitoring & Improvement: Regularly assess and refine your AI ethics practices for ongoing optimization. 

Past Projects

Compass Ethics has worked with a variety of organizations incorporating AI into their business model, strategy, and products. Our projects have included:

A tactical drone start-up sought to establish clear and well-grounded guiding principles to direct policies and AI systems. Our experts built principles based in the company’s ethos to inform decisions about customer acquisition and third-party use of their sensitive technology. ​

A leading autonomous vehicle company worked with us to build trust in driverless cars by wrestling with ethical issues concerning everything from operational impact to broad topics like privacy, transparency, and accessibility. The company also sought a corporate stance framework, as well as a map of the moral obligations they have to key stakeholders, especially when intersecting with AI and data privacy. ​

A mental health and AI startup needed clear guidelines on appropriate uses of AI technology, reasonable and effective privacy standards, and on research ethics concerning AI. Our team developed a clear, industry-leading set of standards for future research projects, as well as a detailed risk-assessment framework to determine benefits and burdens to stakeholders.

An engineering firm specializing in AI for military purposes needed help developing clear and actionable sales criteria for potential clients. Our ethicists developed AI policy management and internal governance structures, as well as crucial safeguards and audit standards to aid in every level of their decision-making.

Ready to Design and Implement your AI Ethics Strategy?

Contact us to set up a consultation, and let us know how we can help your organization.