Following the Thread – Newsletter Issue 7

Regulation & Legislation
Risks & Liability

[Video transcript lightly edited for clarity and grammatical errors.]

Welcome to the Machine Learning Assurance Newsletter. I’m Anthony Habayeb, the co-founder and CEO of Monitaur. We build software to help companies establish transparency, governance, and assurance of their machine learning and AI systems. This newsletter is our attempt to bring news to you that is intersection of machine learning, regulation, and risk.

AI booming, but risks rising

In this issue, our 7th, we start by introducing KPMG’s survey of companies that showed an acceleration of the use of AI and machine learning during the pandemic. We then juxtapose that with another report from Boston Consulting Group that suggests companies are maybe overly confident in their readiness for governance and responsible use of AI and ML. Great demand and excitement on the one hand, great risk and lack of awareness of that risk potentially on the other hand looking at KPMG’s versus BCG’s articles.

State laws and regulations for digital privacy

We have seen some of the further acceleration of regulatory interest in the use of data and the use of models against consumers. We saw the CPRA, which is an extension of CCPA from California, that actually has explicit language about the use of models with consumer data and what rights consumers have.

State-level regulators are talking about what information may or may not be used and what expectations exist for the users of that data, both in financial services or insurance. They want companies to be very clear and fair in how they’re protecting consumers and ensuring that they’re not being biased against certain classes of individuals.

The answer: proactive oversight

Bring all this together and it might be confusing and challenging. Really the best thing that a company can do – as we always say – is be proactive to establish good governance and oversight of systems that marry people, process, and technology.

Enjoy this issue. If you have any feedback, please share it with us. As always, thank you for reading and have a great day.