Rolls-Royce has said that it has made a breakthrough that will enhance society's trust in the use of Artificial Intelligence(AI). Its data innovation business called R2 Data Labs has reported new findings around the ethics of AI which it says will help in its acceptance amongst various industries. Rolls-Royce believes it will, in turn, result in the fifth industrial revolution.
Rolls-Royce claims that its civil aerospace business has been using AI for the last 20 years to monitor its engines in real-time which helps them to better their engine production quality and servicing. They have included it with the use of robotic inspection on critical components.
Rolls-Royce's AI capabilities were previously unknown
The company says it has developed an AI Ethics Framework. It is a framework of evaluation used by any organization to ensure the decisions it takes to use AI in critical and non-critical applications are ethical.
The second one is to trust the step by step process of ensuring the outcomes of AI algorithms. This process involved a five-layer checking system, which can prevent biases from developing undetected with results being constantly monitored to ensure they are trustworthy.
Rolls-Royce said its ethical framework and its trust process has been peer-reviewed by experts in several big tech firms, as well as experts in the automotive, pharmaceutical, academic and government sectors. All of Rolls-Royce's recent AI work will be published later this year.
Rolls-Royce has been using its AI for years in the development of aircraft engines.
"By publishing our findings we want to move the AI ethics conversation forwards from discussing concepts and guidelines, to accelerating the process of applying it ethically," said Rolls-Royce chief executive Warren East, at the London Tech Week's AI Summit last week.
"There is no practical reason why trust in AI cannot be created now. And it's only with the acceptance and permission of our society -based on that trust - that the full benefits of AI can be realised, and it can take its place as a partner in our lives and work," he added.
"Rolls-Royce's AI capabilities are embedded deeply into other companies' products and services and so aren't widely known. Rolls-Royce's AI doesn't often feature in a consumers' understanding of how the digital world is changing their lives," revealed Caroline Gorski, global director at R2 Data Labs.
