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The question is no longer about whether you will use AI; it’s when. And no matter where you are on your journey, navigating the ethical implications of AI use is crucial. Ethical AI is not just a buzzword but a set of principles designed to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in how businesses use artificial intelligence. In the case of Sturdy, we’ve made ethical AI a core commitment. These principles guide our every move, ensuring AI benefits businesses without crossing the line into unmitigated risk.
Ethical AI refers to developing and deploying AI systems that prioritize fairness, transparency, and respect for privacy. For businesses, this means using AI to make smarter decisions while ensuring that the data and technologies used do not cause harm or reinforce biases. The importance of this cannot be overstated—AI has the potential to either empower or exploit, and ethical guidelines ensure we remain on the right side of that divide.
1. Business-Only Data Use: Sturdy’s AI systems focus solely on improving how businesses make decisions. They don't delve into personal data or manipulate information for other purposes. The data processed by Sturdy comes from business sources like support tickets, corporate emails, or recorded calls—never from personal channels.
2. No Ulterior Motives for Data: The data collected by Sturdy is knowingly provided by our customers, and the company doesn't use this data for any purpose beyond what's agreed upon. This ensures transparency and trust between the platform and its users.
3. Privacy and Protection: One of the most critical aspects of Sturdy’s approach is its commitment to not allowing any entity—whether a business or government—to use its technology in ways that violate privacy. If a client were found to be doing so, Sturdy would terminate the relationship.
4. No Deception: Our product is engineered to prevent deception. It never manipulates or deceives users, ensuring that the insights drawn from AI are used to enhance business practices rather than exploit loopholes.
At the core of Sturdy’s AI principles is the belief that AI should not replace human decision-making but augment it. Our Natural Language Classifiers (NLCs) are built to detect risks and opportunities based on the probability that a conversation indicates a particular issue. For example, when a customer complains about a "buggy" product, Sturdy’s AI might tag it as a "Bug" and label the customer as "Unhappy." However, humans remain in control—analyzing the situation and deciding the best action.
This balance between AI and human insight ensures that businesses retain full control over how they respond to issues while benefiting from the speed and accuracy of AI-based insights.
Addressing Ethical Concerns: Bias, Data Leakage, and PII
Sturdy takes proactive steps to address some of the most pressing concerns in AI ethics:
Bias: AI bias is common when the model’s predictions are influenced by prejudices within the data. Sturdy actively works to prevent bias by not using AI to rank or classify individuals, and our models are continuously reviewed for potential bias.
Data Leakage: Data leakage occurs when private or confidential information is unintentionally exposed through AI processes. Sturdy’s NLCs are non-generative, meaning they don’t produce new text or information that could leak private data. They simply label conversations based on business relevance.
Personally Identifiable Information: Sturdy de-identifies PII (Personally Identifiable Information) from customer communications to protect our end customers’ privacy, safeguarding both the company and its customers. We rely on proprietary tools and solutions from industry-leading partners like PrivateAI. Since our inception, Sturdy and PrivateAI have shared the mission of building and maintaining a privacy layer for software.
Sensitive Information: Sturdy goes further by detecting and eliminating Sensitive Personal Information (SPI) and Personal Health Information (PHI) before it is saved, ensuring that the system does not inadvertently expose sensitive data.
In a world where AI has the potential to be misused, companies like Sturdy are leading the charge by navigating the ethics of AI thoughtfully and proactively. Our commitment to transparency, privacy, and human oversight sets a strong example of how AI should benefit businesses and society.
Sturdy's approach to AI exemplifies how businesses can responsibly use technology to drive growth and improve operations while safeguarding ethics. They demonstrate that AI doesn’t need to infringe on privacy or replace human decision-making. Instead, AI should be a tool that empowers teams, ensures transparency, and upholds ethical standards. Navigating the ethics of AI is not just a challenge—it’s an ongoing commitment, and Sturdy is setting a new standard for how it should be done.
CEOs are challenging their teams to leverage AI in every facet of their businesses to increase their productivity. gain deeper insights into user behavior, automate mundane tasks, and drive deeper insights with which to make critical decisions. It’s here. The big question is: How can you use it in your business right now?
Every business wants to stay ahead of the competition. We’ve got a saying here at Sturdy; “your customers are either growing with you or away from you.” And, if you think about it, you are just trying to develop a relationship with your customers to create trust and loyalty. To that end, one of the fundamental tenants of any healthy relationship is listening. Yup. It’s that simple.
