Professional Standards & Ethics Flashcards
7 cards from real AML practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Professional Standards & Ethics flashcards as text
A machine learning engineer discovers their deployed fraud detection model has a significantly higher false positive rate for customers in low-income zip codes. What is the MOST ethically appropriate immediate action?
Answer: Pause the model and notify stakeholders while investigating the root cause
Discovering a discriminatory disparity requires immediate escalation and pausing the harmful system while a proper investigation is conducted.
Under the IEEE Ethically Aligned Design framework, which principle holds that AI systems must remain under human authority and not be designed to override human decisions?
Answer: Human override / Control
Human override and control is a core IEEE principle ensuring humans can inspect, correct, and shut down AI systems at any time.
A data scientist is asked to use customer purchase data collected for loyalty rewards to train a marketing churn model. Which ethical concern is MOST directly raised?
Answer: Purpose limitation / contextual integrity
Purpose limitation holds that data should only be used for the purpose for which it was originally collected and consented to.
When publishing an ML research paper, a researcher finds that a competing team's unpublished work led them to the same solution. What is the ethically required action?
Answer: Cite the competing team's work if it influenced the research
Academic integrity requires attributing any work that influenced your research, regardless of its publication status.
Which of the following BEST describes 'dual-use' risk in the context of machine learning research?
Answer: Research that can be applied for both beneficial and harmful purposes
Dual-use risk refers to technologies or research that can be intentionally or unintentionally repurposed to cause harm.
A company deploys an NLP hiring tool and later discovers it was trained on historical data reflecting past discriminatory hiring practices. Which legal framework in the US is MOST relevant?
Answer: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on protected characteristics, which applies to AI tools used in hiring decisions.
An ML practitioner is hired to consult on a project but lacks expertise in the specific domain. According to professional ethics standards, the MOST appropriate response is to:
Answer: Decline or disclose limitations and bring in a domain expert
Professional ethics require practitioners to practice only within their competence and to be transparent about limitations.