Shawn McManus

As artificial intelligence (AI) is used to streamline formulation, there are ethical and copyright issues to consider before going forward. AgriBusiness Global spoke with Shawn McManus, Chemical Process Specialist and Regional Sales Manager for Admix, to get his top three tips for what companies should require when partnering with a company offering AI in formulating.

1. Setup rigorous safeguards to prevent the accidental inclusion of banned ingredients.

“This will require multiple layers of review by a human project manager. Recent studies have shown that complex AI systems will take unnecessary risk or even circumvent instruction completely to achieve a goal,” says McManus.  “We cannot define this as moral or amoral behavior, it is simply a system working to complete its task. We must always be there to impose ethical behavior on the results. AI is an undeniable part of our future, and like any tool it is our job to use it responsibly.”

2. Create an isolated intranet with multiple layers of redundancy for the AI to work within.

“AI is designed to be a learning tool that can assist us with complex tasks like formulation. To achieve this goal, it will utilize whatever resources are available,” says McManus. “If these resources are from the internet, the potential for intellectual property loss through theft or through the AI simply sharing it because it cannot understand the implications of an non-disclosure agreement are exponentially higher. It would also be very difficult too impossible to enforce intellectual property rights should this situation occur.”

McManus continues, “Hardware redundancy is also critical, in this way, if an intruder should somehow make their way into the system, they can quickly be isolated and shut down without any data loss.”

3. Be very clear and concise about the end goal of the formulation.

“It is best to break the problem down into smaller more manageable pieces. This way the AI can solve each piece of the problem quickly, then compile the multiple results for a new formulation. Recourses should also be clearly defined and segregated to prevent any unintentional IP infringement of your own,” says McManus. “This should greatly improve the efficacy of the system as well as assist with the implementation of the other tips above.”