The World Economic Forum (WEF) has published a blueprint to identify challenges and solutions for AI equity and inclusion across each phase of its life cycle.

Best practices for each step within the technologies’ development are proposed in A Blueprint for Equity and Inclusion in AI, which also provides a holistic approach that connects each stage to benefit the broader ecosystem.

The blueprint is part of a collaboration between members of the WEF Global Future Council (GFC) on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity and includes input from interviews held with people of diverse backgrounds and representatives of institutions in the AI diversity, equity, and inclusion ecosystem.

“This unique report, created by a global community of leaders, provides a lens into a more inclusive AI ecosystem. Collectively, we created a roadmap with actionable items to develop more equitable AI impacting all communities,” said Susan Gonzales, Founder & CEO, AIandYou.

Kay Firth-Butterfield, Head of the AI, and Machine Learning Platform at the WEF, commented: “Bias in AI is a real concern. Over the course of 10 months, the diverse group that makes up the Global Future Council on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity mapped the vast number of bias-related risks in the AI lifecycle and developed a blueprint that sets the foundation for what it means to have an inclusive AI ecosystem.

“Building on AI ethics, this blueprint connects the dots where they previously have not been connected.”

The lack of inclusive AI has proven harmful to businesses and certain communities, in particular ethnic, cultural, linguistic, ideological, and generational minorities. The new blueprint underlines the importance of adopting equity and inclusion strategies for AI through its pre-integrated AI ethics approach.

Additionally, it aims to provide a better understanding of how equity and inclusion by design can be adopted at two levels: the ecosystem (broad) and the AI lifecycle (stages of technical development).

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Nadjia Yousif, Managing Director and Partner, Boston Consulting Group, said: “Inclusion is too often an afterthought in how we approach the visioning, design, and implementation of new digital capabilities. The result? The work being driven by a small, privileged group and those without a stake in the process being left out of the benefits.

“This blueprint provides ways to counteract this trend in the domain of AI, where if acted upon could lead to an acceleration toward a more inclusive society at large.”

The intended audience of the framework includes managers and teams responsible for the different stages of AI development, as well as decisionmakers from both the private and public sectors part of the AI ecosystem.

Julia Arnott-Neenee, Co-Founder and Director, PeopleForPeople_NZ, said: “It is no longer enough to invite underrepresented communities to a table and label it inclusion. This blueprint demonstrates what is truly required to honour the word ‘inclusion’ and its significant meaning through how organisations can evolve community engagement from tick-boxing to transformative.”

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