A board in sync with AI
New Zealand IT company Catalyst has established an internal governance board to manage AI and deploy its approved AI principles, says Sara Brownlie CMInstD.
The board manages ethical and legal responsibility, environmental sustainability and risk considerations, and considers downstream consequences, good and bad.
An AI practice group has created a sandbox environment so staff can more actively and safely experiment, and established a hybrid, multidisciplinary practice group to explore and support the development of AI opportunities across the organisation.
Brownlie says there are some areas of concern. These include the use of emotional recognition systems, which can be seen as a breach of privacy and their current accuracy is questionable, and the use of biometric systems.
Catalyst IT specialise in open-source software (OSS), which enables the provision of IT systems that remove licensing fees and vendor lock-in. It is also exploring the potential of AI open-source projects to add value.
Sara Brownlie
Brownlie says the board does not see AI as a separate product or revenue stream, rather a necessary development across all products and services to remain current.
“Individually, around the board table, we represent a spectrum of views from cautious to bold, which also reflects the views across the company,” she says.
“Security for our clients’ data and systems, and of our own IP, is paramount. However, we are aware we need to bolster knowledge, experience and capability so we can evolve.
“The use cases vary from corporate office efficiency benefits for administrative activities, speed of writing initial code v potential for generating inefficient or flawed code, to building AI functionality into software for client requirements.
"The later focus is with a view to enhance products, with a strong focus on solving customer problems, improving the user experience and reducing customer pain points.”
She says one particular use case for generative AI is translation-enabling customer applications to be shared in languages that couldn’t before.
Another use case is supporting website accessibility by adding alternative text to images.
Large language models have existed for a long time, but what has changed is the accessibility of AI functionality to a wider group of users, she says.
“It will change many sectors; what is unknown is the speed of that change and adoption. That speed will be influenced by the impacts and experiences of early adopters. Don Christie, managing director/founder, is ensuring the board is actively growing its knowledge of how AI will affect our operations and our clients, collectively and individually.”
At its annual corporate day named Catathon, one of the activities this year was using Catalyst Cloud for AI projects in a safe (not open to the internet) manner. This allowed a high level of exposure across about 180 people, expanding their thinking of how AI can be developed into all open-source software products over time.
“Fundamentally, this is one of the strategies to avoid shadow AI, by providing a safe space to innovate,” says Brownlie, an accountant and financial consultant who provides strategic finance and governance services through her company, Fargher Woods Ltd.