SAS: Unlocking a New Era of Innovation with Trustworthy AI

MARCH 26, 2024 | BY SAS

Embracing Trustworthy AI: Shaping Innovation with Ethics and Responsibility

As AI becomes more integrated into our lives, ensuring its responsible and ethical use becomes paramount. This is where Trustworthy AI comes into play.

In the landscape of modern technological advancements, few innovations have the potential to reshape human life as significantly as artificial intelligence (AI). With its increasing prevalence, AI is not just a buzzword but a transformative force that is permeating nearly every aspect of our society, from professional endeavors to personal interactions. However, as AI becomes more integrated into our lives, ensuring its responsible and ethical use becomes paramount. This is where Trustworthy AI comes into play, ushering in a new era of innovation guided by principles of safety, reliability, and ethical practice.

At the forefront of this movement is SAS, a global leader in AI and analytics software and headquartered in the United States, committed to fostering ethical and equitable AI practices. In our collaboration with organizations, the focus is on developing and primarily implementing AI. In doing so, we need to embed ethics in our technology as much as possible. 

SAS recognizes that Trustworthy AI is not just about technological advances, but about designing, developing, and deploying AI systems with human-centricity in mind. These systems are built upon pillars of accountability, inclusivity, transparency, completeness, and robustness, ensuring that they promote human agency while preventing potential harm.

Ethical AI Healthcare Lab

Collaboration is key in advancing Trustworthy AI, and SAS actively partners with organizations globally to explore ways to implement ethical AI within industries. A recent example is SAS's collaboration with Erasmus University Medical Center (Erasmus MC) and Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in launching the Responsible and Ethical AI in Healthcare Lab (REAiHL). This initiative underscores SAS's dedication to collaborating with customers, partners, and academia to raise awareness and advocate for AI that upholds ethical standards and sustainability. 

In the fast-evolving landscape of AI, ensuring that these technologies prioritize patient safety, privacy, and autonomy is imperative. REAiHL brings together multidisciplinary teams of experts in AI, medicine and ethics with policymakers to collaborate on developing and implementing AI technologies that prioritize patient safety, privacy and autonomy.

The recognition of REAiHL as an official lab by the Netherlands' National Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence (ICAI) underscores its significance in shaping the future of AI in healthcare. As an ICAI lab, REAiHL is tasked with operationalizing outcomes in the real world, further emphasizing its role as a catalyst for ethical AI adoption on a global scale.

Responsible Innovation

SAS's commitment to responsible innovation extends beyond healthcare, with initiatives aimed at embedding ethics in AI technology across various industries. By championing equity and human-centered practices, SAS aims to ensure that AI advancements not only drive innovation but also prioritize societal well-being. Through collaboration, advocacy, and ethical leadership, SAS is paving the way for a future where AI serves as a force for good, unlocking a world of innovation that is built on trust, transparency, and ethical principles.

“At SAS, we are committed to a better world by focusing our R&D spending on ethics, equity and sustainability. Our solutions are inclusive, constructive and respect diversity of our teams and customers. This is how we deliver on the promise of AI: realizing a tangible positive impact on organizations and society, " says Phaedra Kortekaas, Managing Director at SAS Benelux.