By Scott Zoldi, Chief Analytics Officer at FICO

A few months ago, intellectual property officials in South Africa became the first in the world to award a patent that names an artificial intelligence as the inventor of the product. The moment was a triumph for Ryan Abbott, a professor at the University of Surrey who has for years led a battle against patent offices around the world to recognise artificial intelligences as inventor.

This essentially means that the AI, not the human who invented AI, owns the intellectual property rights to this invention. What a significant event for AI.

Predictably, the South African government was met with criticism from other countries with some quarters labelling the decision as a mistake or an oversight by the patent office.

Although discussion of artificial intelligence (AI) ethics appears to be approaching fever pitch—the U.S. government is now soliciting broad input for an AI-era Bill of Rights—responsible use of AI has been at the top of my mind for the past five years. My 2017 analytics predictions included:

I think that we are just at the beginning of the golden age of analytics, in which the value and contributions of AI, machine learning and deep learning will only grow as we accept and incorporate these tools into our businesses.

Proper model development and governance is a must, and we should watch out for companies purporting to re-invent AI. It’s not the technology solution for every problem, and it can be easy for companies to misuse the algorithms that drive artificial intelligence due to inexperience, or the race to be on the hype cycle.

We should also be wary of irresponsible use of AI. It won’t be the algorithm that harms you or your business, it will be the inexperienced that try to apply artificial intelligence.

Introducing the Responsible AI Playbook

While some in the tech industry talk about “doing no evil,” FICO has been committed to building a clear path toward achieving Responsible AI, a standard for ensuring that AI is safe, trustworthy and unbiased. Personally, I’ve authored more than 20 related patent applications, spoken to thousands of people at customer meetings, events and conferences worldwide, and shared my thoughts about Responsible AI in dozens of blogs and industry articles.

Unbiased data, and data science, form the kernel of the Responsible AI operating system. In my ongoing mission as a data scientist, to help Responsible AI take root and flourish across industries, I am delighted to announce the AI Playbook: A Step-by-Step Guide for Achieving Responsible AI. In it you’ll find a clear path to operationalizing AI deployments to achieve high-impact business results within important ethical and legal boundaries.

The ‘how-to’ of Responsible AI

The Responsible AI Playbook brings together, for the first time, a step-by-step approach to building organizational, data science and governance infrastructures to support sustained AI innovation. Its eight Responsible AI “plays” comprise:

1. Build a Diverse Team
2. Establish a Robust Foundation
3. Respect the Power of Data
4. Ensure Explainability
5. Establish Ethical AI Guardrails
6. Make AI Innovation Efficient
7. Establish Proper Governance
8. Evangelize Responsibility

Responsible use of AI has never been more important, with misunderstanding and mistrust of artificial intelligence today running high. However, there is a straightforward path to achieving the responsible use of AI. Download the playbook, and follow me on Twitter @ScottZoldi and on LinkedIn to keep up with my latest thoughts.