Thank you for raising such an interesting topic. I have much to say but ill try to keep it brief.
i would like to raise a few points i find very interesting and i hope you do too. There is a lack of consensus amongst practitioners on the definition of AI. There are some broad and lose definitions, but not a clear definition used by all. By some definitions, a calculator could be defined as AI, and yet, most do not consider it as such.
Another point id like to raise, is AI is built on learning models, the ability to learn and apply. By saying this, we agree that there must be a learning memory. In our field this becomes tricky as most data we use is classified as highly sensitive, are unclear/undefined on data sharing, or for some the ownership of data is unclear, this is especially true for organizations/agencies that work with governments.
I would also like to emphasize, there is currently no regulation for AI, which means it carries some substantial risk. This brings us to some of the ethical considerations for introducing the field to AI:
Can affected population consent to the use of their data to feed AI?
How can AI be introduced to organizations safely?
Where do we draw the line and ensure it is not surveillance?
What are the risks of introducing AI, and who will endure it?
What have we learnt from previous experiences?
What are the limitations of introducing AI?
We should additionally ask ourselves, what are we really hoping to get from AI and is it absolutely necessary?
To date, there have been many successful attempts by organizations to adopt some forms of AI safely, i think there is much to learn from those experiences as well, here are some links below:
RE: Artificial intelligence in the context of evaluation
Dear Muriel,
Thank you for raising such an interesting topic. I have much to say but ill try to keep it brief.
i would like to raise a few points i find very interesting and i hope you do too. There is a lack of consensus amongst practitioners on the definition of AI. There are some broad and lose definitions, but not a clear definition used by all. By some definitions, a calculator could be defined as AI, and yet, most do not consider it as such.
Another point id like to raise, is AI is built on learning models, the ability to learn and apply. By saying this, we agree that there must be a learning memory. In our field this becomes tricky as most data we use is classified as highly sensitive, are unclear/undefined on data sharing, or for some the ownership of data is unclear, this is especially true for organizations/agencies that work with governments.
I would also like to emphasize, there is currently no regulation for AI, which means it carries some substantial risk. This brings us to some of the ethical considerations for introducing the field to AI:
We should additionally ask ourselves, what are we really hoping to get from AI and is it absolutely necessary?
To date, there have been many successful attempts by organizations to adopt some forms of AI safely, i think there is much to learn from those experiences as well, here are some links below:
https://www.fao.org/agroinformatics/news/news-detail/fao--ai-and-digital-tools-for-climate-resilient-agri-food-systems--on-the-spotlight-at-the-science-and-innovation-forum-2023/en
https://www.fao.org/vietnam/news/detail-events/en/c/1187477/
https://dref.ifrc.org/fba/
https://jetson.unhcr.org
https://hungermap.wfp.org
Additionally, here are some articles that i found helpful to support critical thinking and i hope they prove helpful to you too.
https://www.humanitarianstudies.no/resource/data-sharing-between-humanitarian-organisations-and-donors/
https://gh.bmj.com/content/7/Suppl_8/e007249
https://onezero.medium.com/are-aid-agencies-abetting-surveillance-humanitarianism-5bc2b5a78ff6
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305119863146
https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/reviews-pdf/2022-02/biometric-data-flows-and-unintended-consequences-of-counterterrorism-916.pdf
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305119863146#fn1-2056305119863146
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2019/02/05/un-palantir-deal-data-mining-protection-concerns-wfp
All the best to you in your brave endeavor!