Tieto is reinforcing its commitment to advancing ethical and responsible artificial intelligence (AI). Today, Tieto announced that it is introducing AI ethics guidelines and certification for its employees, as well as opening new positions for AI ethics and transparency engineers and AI trainers. These steps are part of a sustained drive to promote ethical AI product and service development across the company.

AI ethics guidelines
Tieto develops enterprise AI platforms and AI products for many industries and is committed to the responsible and ethical development and use of AI. The new ethics guidelines will serve as a foundation for all Tieto employees who develop or use AI in any capacity. The principles, consistent with the company’s Code of Conduct, are likely to evolve as AI advances. The guidelines launched today are as follows: 

• Responsibility: Committed to harness AI for good, for the planet and humankind.
• Human rights: Ensuring the freedom and liberty of people to serve the social good.  
• Fairness & equality: Unbiased, fair and inclusive AI fostering diversity and equality among people.
• Safety & security: AI systems are built to prevent misuse and reduce the risk of being compromised. 
• Transparency: Striving towards AI that can be explained and explain itself.  

AI ethics certification
For employees working with AI, Tieto is also trialling an internal ethics certification. AI will have a profound impact on many aspects of our lives. Today, AI is applied in everything from self-driving cars and visa applications to medical diagnosis and financial advice, including instances where life and fortunes might be at stake. Thousands of Tieto employees have completed internal AI courses in 2018 to improve their knowledge of AI, and this certification takes it a step further, ensuring that those working closely with AI solutions follow ethics guidelines.

New AI ethics positions
Tieto will also establish new roles focusing on ethical values embedded within AI. These include AI ethics and transparency engineers and AI trainers to teach ethics to Tieto AI solutions. These specialists focus on transparency, accountability, safety and fairness of AI solutions. Tieto is one of the first companies to recruit for these new types of roles to ensure sustainable and responsible utilization of AI across its businesses. 

“As the world sees extraordinary advances in artificial intelligence, it is imperative that we address the ethics concerns that arise with this technology. By ingraining AI ethics principles and certification in our daily operations, we believe we can contribute to a more sustainable future, and ensure we build responsible AI that supports humanity. Companies developing AI have an important role to play in shaping AI ethics and we need to listen to all sections of society to ensure the highest standards and benefits,” says Dr. Christian Guttmann, Vice President, Head of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science at Tieto.