Walmart announced its Responsible AI Pledge on Tuesday, making six promises: transparency, security, privacy, fairness, accountability and customer-centricity when using technology. / Photo provided by: Shutterstock
As artificial intelligence has dominated headlines around the world over the past year and been a source of anxiety for many, retail giant Walmart is assuring customers that it intends to use it ethically. Now it looks like this.
Walmart announced its Responsible AI Pledge on Tuesday, making six promises: transparency, security, privacy, fairness, accountability and customer-centricity when using technology.
The pledge follows the Biden-Harris Administration’s AI Summit in July, where leading AI companies voluntarily committed to responsible stewardship of emerging technologies. Companies that have signed the White House pledge include Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, Inflection, Adobe, Cohere, Palantir, Salesforce, Scale AI, and Stability.
Walmart said in a press release that its AI Pledge is intended to “ensure the people we serve feel confident and comfortable using our technology.”
Walmart’s six initiatives include:
-
Transparency: We help our customers, members, and employees understand how we use data and technology, including AI, and what our goals are in using it. We are working on this.
-
safety: We take advanced security measures to protect your data. We are committed to continually reviewing our security practices with the goal of mitigating current and emerging threats.
-
privacy: We are committed to evaluating our AI systems to ensure that the sensitive information we store is used in a way that protects your privacy.
-
fairness: We evaluate AI tools for bias that could impact the lives of our customers, members, and employees. We strive to reduce bias and evaluate regularly.
-
Accountability: Utilize human-managed AI. We are committed to taking responsibility for our impact.
-
Customer-centricity: Measure customer satisfaction with AI interactions and listen to feedback. We are committed to continually reviewing our AI tools to ensure that our technology is accurate, relevant, and helps better the lives of the people we serve.
“The bottom line is that even as technology and shopping habits evolve, our purpose and values remain the same,” the company said. “Walmart’s Responsible AI Pledge is about more than just AI. Now is the perfect time for us to speak directly with our customers, members, and employees. Be transparent and address concerns raised by the rapid pace of technological innovation. and strengthen our commitment to using technology in ways that are safe and beneficial to them.”
The Biden-Harris administration’s commitments include:
Make sure your product is safe before releasing it to the public
-
Companies conduct internal and external security testing of AI systems before release. The test will be carried out in part by independent experts and will defend against some of the most important sources of AI risk, such as biosecurity and cybersecurity, and their broader societal implications.
-
Both companies are committed to sharing information across industry and with government, civil society, and academia on managing AI risks. This includes safety best practices, information about attempts to circumvent safety devices, and technical assistance.
Building a system that prioritizes security
-
Both companies are committed to investing in cybersecurity and insider threat protection to protect the weight of their proprietary and unreleased models. These model weights are the most important part of an AI system, and both companies agree that it is important to only expose model weights when intended and when security risks are considered.
-
Both companies are committed to facilitating the discovery and reporting of vulnerabilities in AI systems by third parties. Some issues may persist even after an AI system is released, and robust reporting mechanisms allow for problems to be quickly discovered and fixed.
Gain the trust of society
-
The companies are working to develop robust technical mechanisms, such as watermarking systems, to ensure that users know that content is generated by AI. This action unleashes creativity and productivity with AI and reduces the risk of fraud and deception.
-
Both companies commit to publicly reporting the capabilities, limitations, and areas of appropriate and inappropriate use of their AI systems. These reports cover both security risks and social risks, such as impacts on fairness and bias.
-
Both companies are committed to prioritizing research into the social risks that AI systems can pose, including avoiding harmful bias and discrimination and protecting privacy. AI’s track record shows the potential scale and prevalence of these dangers, and companies are working to deploy AI to mitigate them.
-
Both companies are committed to developing and deploying advanced AI systems to address society’s greatest challenges. From cancer prevention to climate change mitigation and everything in between, if managed well, AI can make a significant contribution to prosperity, equality, and security for all.
