PARIS: A study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Nov 6 revealed that despite increasing concerns about ethical risks associated with the rapid development of AI applications, employers are giving little regard to the issue in their hiring processes.
The OECD analyzed online job postings for AI positions in 14 countries and found that while the number of postings mentioning keywords related to ethics had significantly increased over the past four years, it remained remarkably low, with an average of only 0.4% in 2022.
The report stated, “Results indicate that in the majority of countries, less than 1% of all job vacancies mentioned keywords associated with AI ethics.” In the United States in 2019, a mere 0.1% of AI job postings referenced ethics keywords, while this figure rose to 0.5% in 2022. New Zealand, on the other hand, registered the highest result of 1.6% in 2022.
The OECD report emphasized that despite countries’ strong commitments and the stated intentions of AI development firms, ethics in AI is not currently a priority in hiring decisions, stating, “These considerations should be prioritized.”
The recent introduction of ChatGPT and other generative AI systems has captured public attention and provided a glimpse into the potential of the technology. These systems can rapidly generate text, images, and audio by following simple commands given in everyday language. However, concerns have also arisen regarding issues such as job displacement, cyberattacks, and the level of human control over these systems.
Last week, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hosted a global AI safety summit, bringing together political and tech leaders to address these concerns. Prior to the summit, the G7 powers reached a non-binding agreement on a “code of conduct” for companies involved in developing advanced AI systems.
However, governments are currently lagging behind in terms of regulating this rapidly developing technology.
– AFP
