AI is a rapidly evolving technology that is faced with many challenges and barriers to success. Regional regulations seek to enforce socio-technical considerations to be implemented in situations where the risk of unintended harm is high. Yet, there is no evident test or standardized approach that entities can rely upon.
Organizations tasked with deploying technologies with embedded or hosted AI systems require the means to properly assess the ethical AI concerns and considerations to ensure stakeholders and end-users are treated fairly in the most trustworthy manner possible.
“Data security and data protection must be at the forefront when using AI from the very beginning. That’s why we relied on international expertise (from IEEE) during the development of the software and had our program ethically certified.”
– Deputy Director General for the City of Vienna, Peter Weinelt
IEEE CertifAIEd™ is a certification program for assessing ethics of Autonomous Intelligent Systems (AIS) to help protect, differentiate, and grow product adoption. The resulting certificate and mark demonstrates the organization’s effort to deliver a solution with a more trustworthy AIS experience to their users.
About the Program
Ethical assessment is a rapidly growing expectation in AIS across multiple industries. By augmenting your portfolio with IEEE CertifAIEd, you will be able to acquire a recognized expertise in AI ethics for AIS.
The IEEE CertifAIEd AI Ethics Program was pioneered through the IEEE development process by a diverse, interdisciplinary group of AI Ethics experts, and uniquely addresses criteria including Algorithmic Bias, Ethical Transparency, Privacy, and Accountability as outlined in the Ontological Specifications previously released under Creative Commons License. The criteria are customizable to specific applications and industry verticals. IEEE CertifAIEd is compatible with upcoming regulations such as the EU AI Act.
The IEEE AI Ethics Certification Program Offers
- Individuals:
- Increased knowledge of using the IEEE CertifAIEd framework to assess the ethicality of AI-based products and systems.
- Career Advancement opportunities by becoming an IEEE CertifAIEd trainer or assessor.
- Recognition as an IEEE CertifAIEd Assessor and participation in the global IEEE CertifAIEd member community.
- Training Institutions:
- Revenue growth by adding an AI Ethics module to their current curriculum to address the growing need for ethical AI and AI product development.
- Entering new markets seeking AI Ethics training.
- Benefits from associating with the globally recognized IEEE brand and the IEEE CertifAIEd program.
- Test Labs and Consultancies:
- Ability to differentiate and offer formal assessment and certification service for AI products and systems.
- Take advantage of the growing market need for assessment services on the ethical use of AI in products and services.
- Leveraging a worldwide ecosystem of authorized IEEE CertifAIEd assessors.
- Become recognized as an authorized IEEE CertifAIEd assessors.
- Organizations (Private Enterprises, Governments):
- Increased knowledge of using the IEEE CertifAIEd framework to assess the ethicality of AI-based products and systems.
- Enhancing public confidence in the trustworthiness of public and private entities CertifAIEd AI solutions.
- Attain the IEEE CertifAIEd mark, and be listed on the registry to demonstrate commitment to ethical values.
Learn More About IEEE CertifAIEd
The IEEE CertifAIEd™ Process
The IEEE CertifAIEd process is a collaboration between an organization’s development team and IEEE authorized experts and consists of four core phases:
Considering the Challenges
- Soft or socio-technical attributes are difficult to demonstrate compliance to the marketplace without broadly accepted and proven certification schemes from recognized entities.
- AI Ethics expertise available to large companies is not necessarily available to small and mid-size enterprises; increasing the competitive gaps and challenging resource prioritization to earn compliance where necessary.
- Research has shown bias in AI-based systems producing detrimental results to people of color, gender, and more. The negative brand perception and impact can easily extend into the millions in loss of revenues and business. Further, the trusted relationship with an Entity’s stakeholders are not easily repaired.
Available IEEE CertifAIEd Certification Criteria
There are currently four sets of criteria available for IEEE CertifAIEd certification:
- Transparency criteria relate to values embedded in a system design, and the openness and disclosure of choices made for development and operation.
- Accountability criteria recognize that the system/service autonomy and learning capacities are the results of algorithms and computational processes designed by humans and organizations that remain responsible for their outcomes.
- Algorithmic bias criteria relate to the prevention of systematic errors and repeatable undesirable behaviors that create unfair outcomes.
- Privacy criteria are aimed at respecting the private sphere of life and public identity of an individual, group, or community, upholding dignity.
These ethical criteria are ideal to support use cases that benefit from addressing issues related to one or more of the following themes: privacy, transparency, accountability, algorithmic bias and enterprise governance of AI products and services.
Awareness Training
IEEE CertifAIEd offers a 20-minute awareness module to help decision-makers and other concerned parties get a general overview of AI ethics’ importance to their business and how to address it in their AIS with IEEE CertifAIEd.
Expert Assessor Training
This in-depth training is aimed at individuals who would like to learn how to perform assessment or certification against IEEE CertifAIEd AI ethics criteria and is a requirement to become an IEEE CertifAIEd Authorized Assessor.
Upcoming Training Sessions:
IEEE CertifAIEd Authorized Partners
IEEE CertifAIEd Authorized Assessors
- Download the Ontological Specifications for Ethical Privacy, Algorithmic Bias, Transparency, and Accountability
- Learn more about the AI Ethics Certification Process
- Read the Blog Post “The IEEE CertifAIEd Framework for AI Ethics Applied to the City of Vienna”
- Read “IEEE Use Case — Criteria for Addressing Ethical Challenges in Transparency, Accountability and Privacy of Contact Tracing”
- View IEEE 7000™ Standards Free Through the IEEE GET Program™
- View IEEE Ethically Aligned Design Documents
What is involved in the IEEE CertifAIEd Assessor training program?
There are several steps to becoming a CertifAIEd Authorized Assessor per the IEEE CertifAIEd program.
- During the registration process, the participant submits a signed IEEE license agreement to complete the enrollment process
- Participants then attend the IEEE CertifAIEd Assessor training which typically is 4 to five days in length. At the end of the session participants can take an exam to demonstrate competence for the IEEE CertifAIEd Authorized Assessor role
- A participant who successfully completes the exam is sent a training certificate and badge, and is invited to submit a Case for Competence and apply to become an IEEE CertifAIEd Authorized Assessor
- Based on the outcome of an evaluation of the Case for Competence, a recommendation may be made to approve the applicant as an IEEE CertifAIEd Assessor
- Following approval to become an IEEE CertifAIEd Authorized Assessor, the applicant signs an Authorized Assessor agreement with the IEEE which specifies the expectations between both parties with respect to the Authorized Assessor credential
- Upon signing this agreement, the applicant is designated as an IEEE CertifAIEd Authorized Assessor and is listed in the IEEE CertifAIEd Authorized Assessor registry
- The registry can be consulted by parties that are interested in IEEE CertifAIEd assessment and/or certification
What does the license agreement mean?
The license agreement specifies that any content and material provided during the training can only be used for training and evaluation purposes only. By signing the license agreement, the registrant agrees to respect the confidentiality and intellectual property terms and conditions stipulated in the agreement.
What is the IEEE CertifAIEd Train-the-Trainer Program?
IEEE SA offers a Train-the-Trainer (TTT) program to enable qualified IEEE CertifAIEd Authorized Assessors to deliver IEEE CertifAIEd Assessor trainings through an authorized IEEE CertifAIEd Training Provider partner.
What is IEEE’s business model for the CertifAIEd program?
Eventually IEEE would like to get to the point where IEEE CertifAIEd partners (e.g., CertifAIEd Training Institutes, CertifAIEd Assessment Collaborators, CertifAIEd Certification Collaborators), have enough certified assessors to meet market demand for CertifAIEd training, assessor, or certification services. In this steady state environment, IEEE partners would license the use of IEEE CertifAIEd Intellectual Property (e.g., documentation, training material, assessment criteria) from the IEEE. IEEE partners would then offer services to their markets under their own pricing, marketing, and resourcing approaches. IEEE will maintain a master registry of Authorized Trainers, Assessors, and collaborator entities, regularly updated CertifAIEd material and provide high level marketing support.
The CertifAIEd program is currently in the ramp up stage, so the IEEE is actively working with partners to help develop a resource pool of Authorized Trainers and Authorized Assessors to meet market demand (see below).
Is the IEEE CertifAIEd Assessor training offered globally?
IEEE CertifAIEd is a global program that includes ecosystem members from every geographic region. The IEEE CertifAIEd Registry lists Authorized Assessors from Europe, North America, South America, and Asia Pacific region and represents fluency with at least six international languages. Additionally, the contextual capacity of IEEE CertifAIEd allows for tailoring services towards specific regions.
IEEE CertifAIEd training is offered on a global basis including both in person and virtual training sessions. These sessions are scheduled at various time zones around the world to accommodate global participation.
What types of organizations would be interested in the IEEE CertifAIEd program?
There are several types of organizations or individuals that we envision being interested in the program:
- Training Institutes, Research Institutes or Governments that would like to train individuals to become CertifAIEd Authorized Trainers as part of their portfolio of training offerings, or to build up a cadre of certified assessors for internal organizational needs. We anticipate a significant increase in market demand for Authorized Trainers and Assessors, and these training institute partners could help meet this need.
- Secondly, we envision organizations that provide consulting, testing or certification services (Assessment Collaborators) for other technologies, might be interested in offering assessments and or certifications to companies who want to ensure that their products, systems, or processes are developed based on ethical AI design considerations. These organizations would use CertifAIEd authorized assessors to provide these services as an extension of their current consulting, testing or verification services.
- Thirdly individual organizations (e.g., corporate entities, government agencies, regulatory bodies, universities) might want to have CertifAIEd Authorized Assessors in house to help ensure that the organization’s products and services are developed in accordance with ethical AI design considerations.
What types of business partnering arrangements are available for the CertifAIEd program?
Per the above discussion regarding types of organizations likely to be interested in providing CertifAIEd services, we currently envision two types of partners:
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- Training Institutes who would sign agreements to become authorized CertifAIEd training partners. This would involve a licensing agreement between the specific training organization and the IEEE, including the provision of the required CertifAIEd training material, licensing terms and IEEE support to the organization.
- Consulting, Certification, Testing or Lab organizations who would sign agreements to become authorized CertifAIEd Assessor Collaborators. This would include a licensing agreement between the specific organizations and the IEEE, including the provision of required CertifAIEd assessment/certification material, licensing terms and IEEE support to the organization.
Some organizations may choose to offer both training and assessment/certification services. This is possible although there should be a separation between the provision of these services by a particular organization.
Other types of partnering arrangements may be developed and the IEEE is open to input from potential partners with regards to additional use cases for licensing IEEE CertifAIEd material.
Let IEEE CertifAIEd Help Guide Your Organization Toward Responsible Innovation By:
- Offering consultation to help your AI solutions meet ethical compliance goals
- Identifying an AIS’s ethical impact and focal criteria
- Conducting a formal assessment against IEEE CertifAIEd
- Preparing the formal assessment documentation for certification purposes of an AIS