Ana Chubinidze is the CEO and Founder of AdalanAI, a new approach to AI governance. In the interview she explaines what inspired her to explore the field of trustworhy AI and AI governance as well as shares tips and tools to enable your responsible innovation journey.
What is that you do in the field of Responsible Innovation?
I’ve founded a startup AdalanAI which is building end-to-end solution for AI Governance, SaaS platform together with the AI Governance Framework/Approach. We aim to make tech innovation more about humans rather than tech itself.
How do you define a Responsible Innovator?
Responsible innovator truly cares and is ready to ask hard questions, then keep on looking for answers for as much time or resource as it takes.
What made you choose this career path?
First, curiosity – how whole AI development will unfold and what it means for us, humans.
Second, I love working on hard problems and I think problems/risks related to AI are one of the hardest problems humanity ever faced or will ever face. They need to be solved and here I am to contribute my part.
Third, it’s not about problems only, AI is exciting and everything it can accomplish, I find it fascinating to think that it can help us become better as species and explore the edges of the universe. We can even use AI itself to solve its own problems. And that’s what we plan to do in AdalanAI.
It is still a new field of expertise. How did you become an expert in this field?
I’m quite careful with the word expert but I just got used to be called expert and do not protest it usually. Whatever understanding someone has of a word expert, I think when it comes to the AI field, the most important thing to strive for is to be constantly open to learning, get introduced to new fields of studies beyond your academic degree or work experience, stay updated, talk to practitioners and exchange ideas.
I think that’s another thing I found most attractive about AI – you always, always have to learn new things, you’ll never get bored.
What recommendations for trainings do you have?
I myself did Microsoft Professional Course on Data Science on Edx for example and I’d recommend it for intro level. I also think anyone working on any AI project should also take some neuroscience course, for example Master Neuroscience and Neuroanatomy by Dr. Najeeb on Udemy. If you are especially beginner in AI, there are so many online courses out there, though I cannot recommend specifically ones that I have not taken. Advanced AI governance courses are rather hard to find and actually that’s why we at AdalanAI are building such a course and will launch very soon.
Which publications do you recommend to dive deep into the topic?
I would actually recommend to check the resource repository aiethicist.org created by Merve Hickok which includes policy documents, academic publications, case studies and many more. And I’ll relaunch All Things AI Governance Newsletter next Monday where I send recommended readings every two weeks.
Which other Responsible Innovators or professionals inspire you?
This is so hard, don’t want to miss someone.
Meredith Whittaker – President at Signal App
Dr. Joy Buolamwini - Founder and Executive Director, The Algorithmic Justice League
David Ryan Polgar – Founder of All Tech is Human
Olivia Gambelin – Founder of Ethical Intelligence
Ryan Carrier – Founder of ForHumanity
And everyone else in the teams of these organizations, the list is really long.
Why do we need responsible innovation?
Shortly: more benefit and less damage to humans. In other words, we need to make sure we are not building technologies just because we can and then harming individuals, society or whole species. We need technologies that has positive effects on everyone.
Which obstacles did you need to overcome when founding AdalanAI/ choosing this career path?
The field is still very new and one of the biggest challenges we encounter is awareness on the market – there is still a lot of educational activities that we need to do before actually offering specific service or product.
What are institutions everyone needs to know in the field?
Few that I can think of right now:
How can RI help you to achieve your goals?
Enable me to meet more practitioners in the field so that I can learn more about their challenges or best practices, experiences and ideas.
Which tools do you use on a weekly basis to succeed at your job?
In our team we extensively use docs and for project management we use Asana. Honestly, nothing else special, sometimes pen and paper are the best.
Where do you keep yourself informed about the topic?
Everywhere possible: newsletters, EU platforms, visiting organizations websites, keyword searches, events, talking to peers, Linkedin, Twitter, joining communities.
What are the 5 most important hacks to successfully implement responsible innovation?
Care, truly
Learn to ask better questions
Be ready for continuous seek for answers
Reflect on outcomes very carefully, get feedback
Reiterate, never think it’s done, responsible innovation cannot be automated. Use human advantage, think and reflect constantly
Which events/conferences are most important to you in 2023?
And honestly I cannot think of a big conference dedicated to responsible innovation or AI ethics specifically. Maybe that’s what we should think about doing as well.
In the Responsible Innovators Insights series experts from the ecosystem explain how they got into their field of expertise and share helpful tools to enable your responsible innovation journey.