Nutrition Facts, Drug Facts, and Model Facts: Putting AI Ethics into Practice in Gun Violence Research
This addresses the need for transparency and trust in AI tools for public health practitioners and vulnerable populations affected by gun violence, though it is an incremental step focused on a specific domain.
The study tackles the problem of distrust in AI models used for firearm injury research by proposing a Model Facts template to standardize and simplify the presentation of accuracy and demographic information, making it easier for general users to assess model validity and biases without technical expertise.
Objective: Firearm injury research necessitates using data from often-exploited vulnerable populations of Black and Brown Americans. In order to minimize distrust, this study provides a framework for establishing AI trust and transparency with the general population. Methods: We propose a Model Facts template that is easily extendable and decomposes accuracy and demographics into standardized and minimally complex values. This framework allows general users to assess the validity and biases of a model without diving into technical model documentation. Examples: We apply the Model Facts template on two previously published models, a violence risk identification model and a suicide risk prediction model. We demonstrate the ease of accessing the appropriate information when the data is structured appropriately. Discussion: The Model Facts template is limited in its current form to human based data and biases. Like nutrition facts, it also will require some educational resources for users to grasp its full utility. Human computer interaction experiments should be conducted to ensure that the interaction between user interface and model interface is as desired. Conclusion: The Model Facts label is the first framework dedicated to establishing trust with end users and general population consumers. Implementation of Model Facts into firearm injury research will provide public health practitioners and those impacted by firearm injury greater faith in the tools the research provides.