Deloitte's Tanneasha Gordon Discusses AI Ethics and Privacy at AFROTECH 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now pervasive, impacting sectors from health care to national security. At AFROTECH™ 2024, Tanneasha Gordon, U.S. data and digital trust principal at Deloitte & Touche, joined privacy executive Jarell Oshodi to discuss the challenges of balancing AI innovation with privacy and trust.

AI's Benefits and Risks

Gordon described AI as a "broad field of computer science" focused on mimicking human intelligence through three paradigms: senses, creativity, and consciousness. She highlighted AI's benefits, including:

• Increased productivity
• Efficiency gains
• Cost savings

However, she also outlined five key risks:

1. Deepfakes and misinformation threatening democracy
2. Copyright and IP concerns for creators
3. Job displacement
4. Algorithmic bias disproportionately affecting communities of color
5. Privacy violations

Addressing Bias and Privacy

Gordon emphasized how AI systems can perpetuate systemic biases, leading to wrongful arrests, biased hiring, and racial profiling due to higher error rates in AI outputs. She noted that while traditional deterministic models allow for straightforward risk prevention, generative AI's probabilistic nature makes it harder to control.

"[Probabilistic], meaning that when the AI agent and system is actually processing your prompt, the engineer that built that as well as the engineer managing it, don’t know what the AI is going to actually spit out," Gordon said.

Regulatory Landscape

Governments are responding faster than ever to AI's rapid growth. Gordon noted:

• Over 300 AI regulations, laws, or guidelines globally
• Approximately 30 state-level AI regulations in the U.S.
• The EU AI Act as a likely global framework

However, on Jan. 23, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order prioritizing American AI leadership and rolling back Biden-era regulations, per a White House fact sheet.

Call to Action

Gordon urged the audience to:

• Consider careers in cybersecurity, a resilient and recession-proof field
• Read "Securing Our Future: Embracing the Resilience and Brilliance of Black Women in Cyber"
• Research leading AI and privacy experts

She acknowledged AI's potential to displace jobs but emphasized the emergence of new opportunities, advising attendees to leverage AI for productivity and career growth.

For more insights, explore AFROTECH™ Labs.