Taming artificial intelligence: A theory of control–accountability alignment among AI developers and users

The growing agency of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, more specifically systems based on machine learning, has raised concern about the security, safety, and ethical risks of AI use. We argue that core to mitigating AI risks is proper alignment of control and accountability for the stakeholders involved in AI development and use. Control enables and accountability motivates stakeholders to achieve desired and avoid undesired outcomes using AI. However, AI systems’ capabilities for autonomous adaptivity reduce control even for the experts who create them.