Launching a Responsible AI Roadmap

for the Telecoms Industry

 

 

Supported by 19 mobile network providers, the GSMA framework is the first to be implemented across an industry.

A Responsible AI (RAI) Maturity Roadmap for the telecom sector has been unveiled by the GSMA, the global group that represents mobile network operators (MNOs).

The initiative seeks to unleash a $680 billion market potential over the next two decades for telecom businesses by assisting them in adopting and measuring ethical and responsible approaches to artificial intelligence (AI).

Nineteen major mobile network operators, including BT Group, Vodafone, Telefonica, Orange, Singtel, and Deutsche Telekom, have endorsed the roadmap, which was created in collaboration with McKinsey. It incorporates knowledge from various operators and conforms to international AI laws and moral guidelines established by institutions like the OECD and UNESCO.

Taking Up a $680 Billion Market Prospect

McKinsey forecasts that over the next 15 to 20 years, the increased usage of AI in the telecom industry could generate as much as $680 billion. The goal of the GSMA is to guarantee the ethical and responsible integration of AI throughout the industry. For the first time, an entire sector has committed to a single, accountable AI framework with the release of the roadmap.

Telecom firms can evaluate their existing AI maturity levels and pinpoint areas for progress with the help of the RAI Maturity Roadmap. It gives precise instructions on how to utilize AI ethically, along with tools to track development and best practices for AI governance.

The OECD, UNESCO, and other international organizations’ ethical norms and laws, as well as considerable industry consultation, have shaped the GSMA’s roadmap. The framework encourages ethical AI procedures that comply with these globally acknowledged norms.

Essential Elements and Optimal Methods

Five essential elements form the foundation of the RAI Maturity Roadmap and are essential for the responsible application of AI:
• Vision, values, and strategic goals: Linking AI projects to the overarching aims of the company.
• Operating model: Making sure that the organization’s AI governance is ingrained.
• Technical controls: Putting AI solutions into practice in compliance with legal specifications.
• Cooperation with external partners and stakeholders: Conducting ethical business with these parties.
• Managing and communicating corporate transformation: promoting internal change and preserving openness in AI projects.

The roadmap also encompasses best-practice principles such as fairness, human oversight, privacy, security, transparency and environmental sustainability.

 

Leading by Example

“This roadmap will now empower more MNOs to embrace AI in the knowledge that they are doing so responsibly and ethically,” said Mats Granryd, director general of the GSMA. “The telecoms industry is proud to lead the way as the first sector to commit to this approach.”

Telefónica CEO José María Álvarez-Pallete López added: “The speed with which AI has now become a central part of tech and telecoms operations demonstrates its power and undoubted value, but also the risks we must consider as an industry and the need to include ethics at the heart of AI to prevent its uncontrolled development. It is crucial for us all to ensure responsible guidelines for the use of AI are implemented now and it is great to see the telecoms industry leading the way on this with the GSMA’s new roadmap.”