30/11/2022
AI and PoPIA
At this moment in time, no discussion on AI in South Africa would be complete without examining PoPIA – which came into effect on the 1st of July 2021 and its impact on the use of AI systems. South African businesses will be remiss if they do not familiarise themselves with a deep understanding of the regulations pertaining to the use of personal information required for AI or acquired through it. The Act has made provision for the governance of automated decision making and strictly directs how pronouncements or resolutions may be arrived at through information gleaned from AI profiling techniques. It prohibits financial institutions, for example, from granting or rejecting loan applications solely based on profiles created by AI systems.
Ignorance will not be accepted as an excuse if businesses inadvertently put themselves at risk of breaking with regulations. Analytics lies at the heart of AI systems that produce information which may be deemed valuable to the system but may not have been compliantly acquired as directed by PoPIA. Add to that the risk of a security breach which today is being cited more as a certainty than a possibility. In a case where personal information is compromised and data is stolen – the organisation that gathered it will be left with a fine and possible staggering loss of business due to breach of trust with its customers. Do these constrictions mean AI cannot be used to tap into the unparalleled value it holds for businesses today? No, it certainly does not but it does require partnering with AI specialists who can guide companies through the regulatory minefield to ensure compliance.
Read the full article here: https://www.argility.com/thought-leadership/how-to-build-ai-into-your-organisation/
