AI and Privacy

 

Artificial Intelligence. It has been around in our cultures in one form or another since the times of the Ancient Greeks and their myths, through to Frankenstein, and Asimov. This long and storied history cannot take away from the fact that AI is now front and centre in our world. AI technology is for Ericsson and our customers a key business enabler. 

Looking back at the history of AI, we see a recurring theme. Implications on privacy and human rights. Using AI wrongly, or without due diligence can lead to a widespread escalation of problems on many fronts. 

Before we begin to look at the implications of AI on privacy, let’s define what it means. 

Of utmost importance here is to first clarify what ’AI’ means, as it can mean different things to different people, and there is no agreed definition in the industry around it. Therefore, we will attempt to describe how we deal with the definition within Ericsson. At Ericsson, we look at AI as a set of technologies (for example machine learning, deep learning) which enable functions, such as image recognition, text generation or text analysis. Such technologies display a certain degree of autonomy and resemble to some extent the ability of a human to ‘reason’ and arrive at a conclusion. 

What is the relationship between AI and privacy? 

With increased digitization of consumer-centric applications, media, information and commerce we have witnessed major developments in technology and the usage of artificial intelligence in the past years. We have also seen that not all AI makes use of personal information. In fact, there are plenty of use cases in 5G networks aimed at improving infrastructure quality and reliability that do not need to feed AI with privacy-related data. 

On the other hand, when it comes to AI and privacy, we have also noticed that privacy impact must be handled with extra care. For example, AI systems may have the capability to single out and identify an individual who supposedly was not identifiable from the input dataset’s perspective. Such identification may happen even accidentally as a result of the AI computation, exposing the individual in question to unpredictable consequences. For these reasons we explain later in the blog what methodology we have developed and the needed steps to ensure a satisfactory level of privacy in developing AI systems.  

How can we trust AI systems?

So, that’s the basics out of the way. Now let’s look at how to construct trustworthy AI (with inherent privacy by design) in a live system. And where better to start than network systems – an area where we see an increasing use of AI and significant changes going forward.

Here, as with all AI systems, there are three key interfaces to work with: the AI input data, the AI actually within the network, and the AI output data. All three areas have key privacy concerns, and, to ensure we have trustworthy AI at each step, we work towards having requirements imposed on those within Ericsson who work with AI at each stage. We base these requirements on legal obligations, customer requests, and what we see as best practices and attempt to make these requirements aligned with the direction in which we see the industry moving. 

The Future of AI and Privacy

Understandably, the topic of AI and privacy is both long and complex. We hope to have summarized some of the key points mentioned above, ranging from the importance of it to how it is evolving today. We have also touched on how Ericsson approaches and ensures that - with all of our AI technologies - privacy is embedded in the process from start to finish. 

Ericsson follows the EU’s definition of AI and all its inherent features. This includes the fact that our AI has to be lawful, ethical and robust. We are aware that the futures of privacy and AI are very much intertwined due to their nature, and this is further exemplified by recent cases and their associated fines. 

We are aware that the entire landscape of AI is changing. From the technologies being used, the customer needs smarter AI, and the regulations are coming thick and fast. Even if all of these AI changes don’t directly impact privacy, we need to be prepared. At Ericsson, we can say with confidence that we are ahead of the curve in this regard, and have an adaptable system that can not only match the ongoing pace of evolution but ensures that we can be in a position to help shape the entire field of AI to one which respects the key principles of privacy going forward.