{"id":20464,"date":"2024-06-06T14:25:38","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T18:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=20464"},"modified":"2024-06-25T11:37:20","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T15:37:20","slug":"overcoming-ethical-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2024\/06\/overcoming-ethical-debt\/","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming ‘Ethical Debt’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Headshot<\/a>
Cathy Petrozzino<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How fast is too fast? Cathy Petrozzino, <\/strong>\u201980, (Mathematical Sciences) believes that in the realm of AI and large language model chatbots, this is a question we need to be asking. As a principal in cybersecurity, privacy, and AI ethics at the MITRE Corporation, a public interest nonprofit in Bedford, Massachusetts, that operates federally funded R&D centers on behalf of the government, she is paying close attention to the speed and ubiquity with which these tools are being adapted and employed. In particular, Petrozzino doesn\u2019t believe an organization\u2019s good intentions alone are sufficient to identify and manage ethical risk in AI.<\/p>\n

Petrozzino sees the integrity and reliability of data used in AI as a defining limitation, describing the challenge as a form of \u201cethical debt.\u201d She borrows from the concept of \u201ctechnical debt,\u201d which compares releasing first-time computer code that has not been fully tested and corrected to going into debt. Sending out code with technical debt speeds development and can be a good thing\u2014so long as it is \u201cpaid back\u201d promptly to ensure the integrity of the code base.<\/p>\n

\u201cEthical debt is the same kind of concept,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt\u2019s when you\u2019re more interested in putting out a solution quickly, which is often the business driver\u2014to be first to market. But you haven\u2019t yet looked at your solution from an ethical perspective and you end up having a situation where there are biases or other problems within the data or AI solution that haven\u2019t been addressed. And so, there\u2019s ethical debt.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a crucial difference. Technical debt is owed by developers to customers who bought the product. Ethical debt falls not on customers, but on individuals who have no concept that they\u2019re being treated unfairly because an algorithm invisible to them was used and the humans accountable for developing, deploying, and sustaining this algorithm did not adequately address ethical risk. \u201cOften, the unfortunate truth is that it\u2019s the people\u2014particularly individuals or groups who have been historically marginalized\u2014who pay the price as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petrozzino describes herself as optimistic about finding ways to overcome ethical debt. \u201cI look at this as a classic risk management problem. There are much more risk identification and management activities, and more thought about how we manage the risk today than in the past, thanks partially to ChatGPT. So I am encouraged by that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Cathy Petrozzino \u201980 sees the integrity and reliability of data used in AI as a defining limitation, describing the challenge as a form of \u201cethical debt.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","issue-spring-2024"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOvercoming 'Ethical Debt' - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cathy Petrozzino \u201980 sees the integrity and reliability of data used in AI as a defining limitation, describing the challenge as a form of \u201cethical debt."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2024\/06\/overcoming-ethical-debt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Overcoming 'Ethical Debt' - JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cathy Petrozzino \u201980 sees the integrity and reliability of data used in AI as a defining limitation, describing the challenge as a form of \u201cethical debt."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2024\/06\/overcoming-ethical-debt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-06-06T18:25:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-06-25T15:37:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Petrozzino_Portrait_greyscale_social.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"655\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Petrozzino_Portrait_greyscale_social.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2024\\\/06\\\/overcoming-ethical-debt\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2024\\\/06\\\/overcoming-ethical-debt\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Abby Lattes\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742\"},\"headline\":\"Overcoming ‘Ethical Debt’\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-06-06T18:25:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-06-25T15:37:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2024\\\/06\\\/overcoming-ethical-debt\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":417,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2024\\\/06\\\/overcoming-ethical-debt\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/06\\\/Petrozzino_Portrait_greyscale.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Alumni\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2024\\\/06\\\/overcoming-ethical-debt\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2024\\\/06\\\/overcoming-ethical-debt\\\/\",\"name\":\"Overcoming 'Ethical Debt' - 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