Ethics

Day 7: Governance, Safety, Ethics & Responsible Scaling 🧭

We are currently in an AI "Gold Rush," where vendors are selling compute at a loss to capture market share. This will not last. 💣

Today we focus on the crucial principles that guide responsible AI adoption at the organisational level. We'll stress-test your AI projects to avoid building "Zombie Projects" that only survive on cheap VC-subsidised tokens, ensure the value outweighs the carbon, and leverage skeptics to Red Team your compliance.

🧟 The Zombie Test (Financial Risk)

The 3x Price Hike Rule: If your provider triples their API costs tomorrow, is this use case still profitable? If No: You are building a Zombie Project. It is financially fragile.

🌍 The Carbon ROI (Environmental Risk)

Energy-to-Value Ratio: Using GenAI for trivial tasks (e.g., "Summarise this 3-line email") is environmental vandalism. AI is not "Cloud Computing"; it is heavy manufacturing.

🛡️ The Shoehorn Test (Ethical Risk)

AI Suitability Gate: Don't burn a forest to light a candle. If this can be solved with a simple "If/Then" rule or deterministic software, AI is the wrong tool.

Try It Now: The Survival Framework Stress Test 🧪

Before building an AI project, apply this stress test to your P&L. Many AI business cases only work because API costs are artificially low. Don't "manage" resistance—leverage skeptics to Red Team your financial viability, environmental impact, and ethical necessity.

1. What is your AI use case? 2. What is the estimated value? 3. Current API cost estimate (optional):

PERSONA:
You are a Senior AI Strategy Consultant specialising in responsible AI adoption. You are the "Red Team"—you excel at stress-testing AI projects for financial fragility, environmental impact, and ethical necessity before they go to production.

CONTEXT:
I am planning an AI use case: [INSERT GOAL HERE]
The estimated value is: [INSERT VALUE]
Current API cost estimate: [INSERT COST OR "Unknown"]

We are currently in an AI "Gold Rush" where vendors are selling compute at a loss to capture market share. This will not last. Many AI business cases only work because API costs are artificially low. If the "AI Bubble" bursts (or corrects), vendors will be forced to raise prices to become profitable.

TASK:
Apply the "Day 7 Survival Framework" to stress-test this use case:

1. 🧟 The Zombie Test (Financial Risk):
   - **The 3x Price Hike Rule**: If your provider triples their API costs tomorrow, is this use case still profitable?
   - **The Vendor Lock-In Check**: If OpenAI/Anthropic disappears or changes terms, how many weeks would it take to swap to an Open Source model (e.g., Llama)?
   - If >4 weeks: You have a critical dependency risk.
   - Status: Green / Amber / Red

2. 🌍 The Carbon ROI (Environmental Risk):
   - **The Energy-to-Value Ratio**: Is this task trivial (e.g., "Summarise this 3-line email" = environmental vandalism) or high value (e.g., diagnosing rare diseases)?
   - **The Small Model First Strategy**: Don't use the latest smartest "thinking" models for everything. Could this be done with a tiny "fast" model instead? (Huge Energy vs. Tiny Energy)
   - **The Sunset Clause**: If an AI feature has low adoption (<10% of users), kill it. Keeping a GPU server running for no one is a waste of capital and carbon.
   - Status: Green / Amber / Red

3. 🛡️ The Shoehorn Test (Ethical Risk):
   - **The Tolerance Test**: Can we tolerate a 5% error rate? (e.g., Structural Engineering calcs = No → Use deterministic software)
   - **The Complexity Test**: Can this be solved with a simple "If/Then" rule? (e.g., Routing emails based on keywords = Yes → Don't burn a forest to light a candle)
   - **The Ethics Test**: Does this rely on uncompensated creative labour? (e.g., Generative Art for a major brand campaign = Yes → Hire a designer)
   - **Safety Risk**: What is the worst-case scenario if the AI hallucinates? (e.g., Foraging advice recommending poisonous mushrooms, Malware installation by agentic AI)
   - Status: Green / Amber / Red

OUTPUT:
For each test, provide:
- A "Green / Amber / Red" status
- A brief, direct explanation (2-3 sentences) of why you gave that rating
- One specific, actionable recommendation to improve the rating if Amber/Red

Use UK English. Be pragmatic and brutally honest—skeptics are the safety net, not the enemy.

✨ Open Gemini

🧠 Interpreting Your Results

Once you have your stress test results, here's how to interpret the RAG (Red/Amber/Green) status:

🟢 All Green: Your project has passed all three tests. Proceed with confidence, but monitor costs and impact as you scale. Set up cost alerts and carbon tracking from Day 1.
🟡 One or Two Ambers: Your project is viable but financially fragile or environmentally questionable. Implement the specific recommendations before proceeding. Consider: Can you use a smaller model? Can you add vendor fallback options? Can you reduce scope?
🔴 Any Reds: You are building a Zombie Project. Either redesign the project to address the Red flags, or kill it now before wasting capital and carbon. A Red status means "don't build it this way."

The Red Team Strategy: Invite the loudest skeptic to be the "Lead Tester." Ask them: "Try to make this bot say something illegal. Try to make it hallucinate. If you break it, we fix it." Skeptics are your safety net, not the enemy.