With the unparalleled rate of technological advancement within the last decade, Artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly prevalent in many areas of our lives. From generative AI that can create multiple content types with simple prompts like ChatGPT and Meta AI, to smart home gadgets that learn our preferences and routines and include virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa, to facial recognition systems, AI has the ability to make our interactions with technology more purposeful. While the positive impact of AI on our lives and businesses may not be in doubt, numerous concerns have been raised with respect to the ethical and privacy risks of AI and whether there is a balance to maximizing AI functions and ensuring data privacy.
In this Article, we discuss ArtificiaI Intelligence and its privacy risks. We also proffer some recommendations with respect to the ethical use of AI to ensure data privacy compliance in line with the provisions of the law.
The Intersection Between Artificial Intelligence and Privacy – Benefits and Risks
Artificial Intelligence involves using computers to do things that traditionally require human intelligence. AI enables machines to perform operations that collect, evaluate and react to diverse input data sets by simulating the human brain. This technology has the ability to deliver high-quality work, reduce mistakes and improve precision, operate continuously without stopping, provide digital assistance, make impartial judgments, carry out a lot of monotonous duties, produce countless inventions in almost every industry that assist people in solving the most difficult problems, think faster than humans and multitask while producing precise outcomes. Through the use of enormous data sets, AI improves decision-making by spotting patterns and trends that are frequently unseen by humans. On the other hand, the core concepts of data privacy include compliance with privacy laws and the appropriate collection, storage, processing, management, and sharing of personal data with third parties. AI systems often rely on large amounts of personal data to learn and make predictions.
AI plays several roles in ensuring the privacy and protection of data and can be deployed in promptly identifying, assessing, and blocking cyberattacks through a comprehensive behavioural analysis. It can handle Data Subject Access Requests faster than humans, ensuring individuals have the right to access their information as stated in the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023, Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) 2019 and other privacy laws. Furthermore, as a central management unit, AI systems are able to quickly assess current company data and update privacy requirements while maintaining consistency. Also, phishing and malware attacks can be avoided with the proper application of AI-driven data security solutions. This is done by extensively scanning emails and detecting dubious links in phishing emails. Additionally, AI can handle requests for sensitive data independently, preventing it from getting into the wrong hands. It is interesting to note that AI algorithms are able to successfully conceal personally identifying information (PII) from datasets, protecting individual privacy while enabling companies to use important data for research and analysis. AI can also assist with automating compliance checks and ensuring that data handling practices align with legal requirements thereby complying with data protection regulations.
Despite the many advantages of AI, there are also serious concerns about data privacy. The broad data collecting and surveillance capabilities made possible by AI technology are among the main causes for concern. Large amounts of data are frequently used by AI systems to train its algorithms and enhance performance and this data may contain sensitive information like medical records, as well as personal information like names, addresses, National Identification Number and bank details. The collection and processing of this data raises concerns about how it is being used and who has access to it. Also, individuals' right to privacy may be violated and privacy breaches may occur from unauthorized access to this data. Although data breaches affect systems of all kinds, the number of information and data generated by AI systems can have a greater impact. The large datasets collected can result in infringement on copyright laws and privacy issues when copyrighted contents which include personal data are used without authorisation.
In addition, the concept of fairness in data privacy requires managing personal data in a reasonable way. However, with AI, reasonability may be called to question where automated decision-making is involved. For instance, an AI powered recruitment tool is intended to speed up the HR recruiting process. However, owing to past biases in the datasets, the AI tool could favour applicants from particular cities/states and universities and penalise candidates who choose non-traditional career pathways. Consequently, there's a chance that competent applicants may consistently go unnoticed, which could only reinforce existing prejudices and make it more difficult for the company to hire a diverse staff range.
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