If you’ve engaged with CAST on AI over the past 12 months or so — whether that’s through our workshops, events, courses, peer groups, task force or other activity — it’s likely that you’ve encountered the term ‘worthwhile AI’.
It’s a term we use not just internally to ensure that our use of AI enhances our mission, serves our communities and aligns with our values — but also more broadly, to work towards championing, shaping and advocating for AI that is genuinely ‘worthwhile’ for all.
The concept is an intentionally fluid one, to ensure we centre our communities and values as the AI landscape continues to develop at a rapid pace — but to get a sense of where we are at the moment, we caught up with CAST’s Director Dan Sutch to discuss what we mean by ‘worthwhile AI’ — and why we believe it has such great significance for the sector.
Can you define what is meant by ‘Worthwhile AI’?
As a concept, Worthwhile AI came from the question ‘is this a worthwhile use of AI, and how can AI be worthwhile for all?’ It’s a question that we ask to ensure we’re always foregrounding our mission, communities and values. It’s a question that means we’re always considering the balance between the benefits of AI and the challenges. It’s a term we use not just internally to ensure that our use of AI enhances our mission, serves our communities and aligns with our values — but also more broadly, to work towards championing, shaping and advocating for AI that is genuinely ‘worthwhile’ for all. This means we keep two key questions uppermost in our minds at all times — namely:
- What is a worthwhile use of AI? How can AI help us achieve meaningful impact while avoiding harm? and
- How do we help bring about worthwhile AI? What role do we play in shaping AI so that it prioritises fairness, inclusion and the needs of the people we support?
More practically — it’s baked into the things we’re creating. Our experiments canvas helps us to consider whether any new use of AI is worthwhile —and ensures that we’re thinking about the benefits and consequences. Our Experiments Library aims to share others’ worthwhile explorations into using AI to achieve their missions. The products and services we create fit under this umbrella too — they all contribute to ensuring worthwhile uses of AI, and that AI is worthwhile for all.
We’re not looking to create a concrete definition of what ‘Worthwhile AI’ is — but it’s a guiding principle and question that we use, and that we’d invite you to ask too.
What does this mean for CAST: how does the concept of ‘worthwhile AI’ inform your workstreams and guide the team’s approaches / activities / decisions?
An important element of our strategy is helping to increase the influence of VCSE organisations in conversations and decisions about AI — particularly with government and tech companies — ensuring the communities that VCSE organisations work for are prioritised in those conversations and decisions. To do this, we need a VCSE sector that is better informed about AI. We believe it is worthwhile to support VCSE organisations to engage with AI, to build their experience and confidence so that they can better represent and support their communities.
To do this, we want to ensure VCSE practitioners can develop their experience safely — so we have built tools, guides and resources that help with this.
How do you envisage the concept will work for the sector at large: how do you plan to help other organisations understand and engage with the approach?
We’re here to support the sector’s critical engagement with AI — ensuring the sector can continue to best serve and support their communities. That starts with asking themselves the question: ‘what is a ‘worthwhile’ use of AI for our mission and community’? We’ll provide tools and resources to support this approach, and hope that others will continue to share their approaches and resources in a way that builds a collective critical engagement with AI. Whether the term is used by others or not is fine — but we’ll support all activities that ensure VCSE organisations can best support their communities and missions.
How does ‘worthwhile AI’ integrate with existing concepts such as ‘ethical AI’, ‘inclusive AI’ and ‘responsible AI’?
It’s not looking to replace these — and it aligns/overlaps with those terms. But each of those terms are really deep, sometimes contested and sometimes mean different things to different people. For us, ‘Worthwhile AI’ is a reminder to keep your mission, community and values at the heart of what you’re doing — and when we share something with this name, it means we’re doing the same.
Over to you!
What would you like to know about Worthwhile AI? Send us your questions and we’ll answer as many as possible. Please email any questions to our Head of Comms: [email protected].