At Hippo we utilise AI solutions throughout our services, weaving the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence software options into each of our offerings where it is appropriate to do so. Importantly, we do so in a way that is consistent with the strategic priorities of our clients, their governance and in line with their values and norms.
What started as detailed exploration of machine learning (ML), neural networks (NN) and deep learning (DL) has developed into trialling the burgeoning range of publicly accessible tools such as ChatGPT, CoPilot and Midjourney. Our team has been enthralled by the possibility and opportunity to augment our work in a way that serves our clients.
We have sought to deploy AI in such a way that it is consistent with our core values. We work with large, hugely influential institutions; clients that deliver services of national significance across the public and private sectors. As such we offer “Responsible AI” as a solution throughout our service offering and we do so in a way that is entirely in line with our core values of being human, pragmatic and ambitious.
What does this mean in practice? Here are some thoughts and examples of where our thinking lies on the intersection between our Core Values and Responsible AI.
Human
Honest:
Our use of AI should be transparent to the public and honest in our use. Humans demand trust in their interactions. Without it, relationships break down. Similar to the use of cookies in web browsing, there is no indication that an appetite for transparency will diminish over time and to ensure we remain inline with the public’s thirst for trust in our interactions, we must remain transparent.
Collaborative:
Like any technology we deploy, AI should be fashioned to create a positive human impact. We talk about using AI to augment ourselves, allow us to do more, to help more people, to create more benefits for our clients and in a way that makes our colleagues’ roles more fulfilling. There are inherent fears that AI will lead to fewer jobs but we emphasise the creation of new roles and the removal of laborious, tedious tasks in favour of human, value-adding responsibilities – roles where we collaborate creatively for the betterment of our community.
Inclusive:
Artificial intelligence (AI) holds considerable promise for societal advancement; however, the realisation of its full potential hinges on ensuring that the technology is inclusive and representative of the diverse populations it affects at every stage of its development. At Hippo, we are acutely aware of the benefits of ensuring diversity, inclusion and belonging in the workplace as a route to ensuring superior solutions. We are better placed to deliver responsible and inclusive AI, precisely because inclusiveness is a part of our core values.
Ambitious
Passionate:
We talk at length internally about the outcomes we deliver, particularly where they create societal benefits. For us, a responsible use of AI allows us to create more of these impacts. Our team is highly passionate about the core technology and its application, but equally so, the way it can help society by reducing waste, creating social impact and developing new services that simply makes life better.
Value-driven:
Our core values ask our team to challenge and question the purpose of their work to ensure it adds value. The same is applied to our AI solutions. If AI initiatives are simply installed as a gimmick or vanity project we will help steer our clients to create measurable outcomes which we can measure success against.
Bold:
AI gives everyone an opportunity to challenge conventional thinking in their business and ecosystem. Already there are countless examples where AI has changed our clients’ workplace and the services they offer, but by using Responsible AI, we have set our stall out to ensure this is done in the most socially beneficial way, striving for positive change in a safe and well structured fashion.
Pragmatic
Realistic:
As noted earlier in this article, we are bold in our ambition, but our Responsible AI approach demands pragmatism – lofty goals with grounded frameworks. It is common for businesses to bite off more than they can chew in a worthy pursuit of AI fuelled benefits – the road to AI heaven is littered with mothballed initiatives that promised much and delivered little. Our approach to AI sees us mesh bespoke guidelines that speak to our clients’ specific requirements and activities with a safe implementation that progressively adds values through rapid prototyping, design sprints and an iterative development approach.
Adaptive:
Our core values ask us to be flexible enough to understand that things are rarely perfect, but the process should seek to make the solutions more perfect. Well designed AI, like any human activity, should adapt in the same way. If we acknowledge that AI systems are based on human design and inputs, we accept that not every solution will be effective in its first iteration. How we validate, learn and adapt should be as familiar to AI development as it is to the human condition.
Focused:
Our success to date has been founded on a keen understanding of our clients strategic priorities. For our clients to continue to shine, they need the tools to deliver change at pace with the leading sector solutions. AI offers this and Responsible AI does this in a way that builds trust rather than undermines it – brands that are trusted are more profitable than those that are not.
Our values apply to everything we undertake at Hippo
They are at the heart of how we conduct ourselves internally and externally and how we frame our services.
Being human doesn’t mean marginalising artificial intelligence – it should augment our human capabilities and help us deliver greater benefits to society.
Being ambitious empowers us to seek out the more significant improvements that AI can deliver and in a fashion that adds value to our clients and their communities.
Being pragmatic means we create in an effective, logical fashion that maximises the long term benefits our clients seek, rather than being an expensive slice of pie in the sky.
Responsible AI marries up well with every component of our core values. Purposely.
