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Salzburg Global Fellow Michelle Odayan’s perspectives on inclusive AI, bias mitigation, and corporate board responsibilities

Photo Credit: Katrin Kerschbaumer

Michelle Odayan is an advocate of the High Court of South Africa, a social entrepreneur, and the co-founder of IndibaConsult, a human rights-focused professional services and development practice. She has substantive experience working with government, the private sector, and civil society in high-impact skills development and decent work, social and economic capacity-building interventions, business and human rights integration, gender and women’s rights, access to justice, and technological advancement. She currently serves on the boards of several large companies and state-owned entities.

Audrey Plimpton, Salzburg Global Communications Associate: What do you view as the opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence (AI), especially in the areas of human rights, women’s rights, and equality?

Michelle Odayan, Partner and Co-founder, Indiba-Africa Group: The AI phenomenon is here. It's certainly something that we will incorporate into substantive business processes, for personal use, and in different ways to assist us in being generative and efficient with time, because there's a time advantage to using generative AI. I do think that with it comes some disadvantages. I'm a novice in the field of AI, but I do feel like we have to be careful not to exaggerate its value against the human being. There's much more work that has to go into the development process of all of the various AI tools and platforms around hidden bias or discriminatory behavior. It is clear that some of the race/class considerations have been aggregated from contexts where there isn't an aliveness to being inclusive and there isn't an aliveness to being responsible for shifting stereotypes and categorizations of different groups. For me, the concern around an inclusive language model for AI is going to be really important because I do feel that it has the potential to discriminate unconsciously. That would have dire effects on business operations and on society more generally if we are striving for an inclusive world order. I think there's a hidden bias against women in AI. The overemphasis on gender neutrality is also problematic because I think women experience life very differently. Machine learning and women's lived experiences and reality are not at the point that I would like it to be in terms of a more critical focus on shifting gender norms and behaviors so that women feel truly enabled and supported in an inclusive way through all the AI tools that are available.

AP: How can we ensure the ethical use of AI across businesses and companies?

MO: Ethical considerations would remain a human responsibility. If we take the example of board oversight on the implementation of generative AI in business processes, it's going to be important that part of the oversight responsibility is built into the board process around critical oversight of AI and all its perils and promises. The philosophy of the organization in how it attempts to utilize AI for its business needs to be set at the board level and then cascaded into an implementation execution framework with which the board is able to track progress and measure its efficacy and its value to the business. The ethics around its implementation and the philosophy with which AI is used as an enabler is the key responsibility of the board to determine a zero-harm approach to people and the planet and fair, just, reasonable, and responsible corporate behavior through the use of AI. 

AP: How are the companies that you serve on the board for utilizing AI in their corporate governance and operations?

MO: In some of my board roles with big companies and state-owned entities, AI has been used in creative ways, but I also feel like we haven't explored the full potential. I leave here with a deep curiosity about its potential, but at the same time, I open myself up to deeply understand the risks and the perils associated with incorporating generative AI in a substantive way. I understand that there are so many technological advancements and finding what's the best in our digital universe is going to take a fair amount of time. I think they're all going to be building on some of the knowledge I take back and possibly allow me to influence our board to have a session that focuses on the digital universe and generative AI… I'm looking forward to influencing the start of a series of discussions at the board level around the potential and the perils of AI and the speed with which we actually use these tools to make the business more effective and understand the value added to the business.

Michelle Odayan is among the 35 Fellows who participated in the Salzburg Global Corporate Governance Forum from October 4-6, 2023, at Schloss Leopoldskron. Salzburg Global Seminar’s 2023 Corporate Governance Forum on "Promise or Peril? Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Corporate Governance" explored the complex geopolitical considerations and risks posed by AI and whether corporations should (or must) adopt artificial intelligence (AI) approaches in their corporate oversight functions and in their business operations, internal governance, and management of human capital.