Charities have been recommended by the Fundraising Regulator to self-publish an artificial intelligence policy to protect against “bad actors”.
In guidance published this week, the regulator outlined potential AI threats to charities such as misleading content, output influenced by hidden biases, and bad actors seeking to fundraise for criminal purposes.
The regulator told charities that they were responsible and accountable of their use of AI to fundraise, including money raised through third party organisations.
As accompanying guidance to the regulator’s updated Code of Fundraising Practice, which came into effect last month, the new guidelines urge charities to publish an AI policy in the interest of “trust and transparency”.
“This is particularly important, for example, where any AI generated content could be mistaken by donors as being real situations or people,” the guidance reads, with regard to multimedia.
Prejudicial content risk
The regulator warned charities against discriminatory or prejudicial content being drawn from AI as well as potentially inaccurate information.
“You must be aware from the start […] that AI could produce output that seems believable but is incorrect, known as ‘hallucinations’,” its guidance reads.
Regarding fundraising complaints or investigations, the regulator suggested that charities keep a record of the checks they carry out and their decision-making in relation to AI-generated content.
“This will help you to justify your actions and any decisions you make based on your AI uses if you receive a complaint or if we investigate your fundraising,” its guidance reads.
The regulator further recommended that charities do not feed AI models private information, or use its tools to make “automated decisions” around fundraising.
It urged for an “adequate level of human oversight” and asked charities to ensure AI content used for fundraising is “accurate, legal and you always have the right to use it.”
In March this year, speaking at Civil Society Media’s ELEVATE conference in London, the regulator’s head of policy Paul Winyard announced that the AI guidance would accompany the revised fundraising code.
Winyard said in March: “For us as a regulator, it’s quite hard, obviously, to set a regulatory framework for behaviours and ways of practice that aren’t yet known […]
“It is such a complex and wide-ranging subject, it’s something we want to make sure that we get right.”
