ReDDDoT Phase 1: Planning Grant: Designing a Responsible AI-enabled Digital Service Ecosystem in Finance and Healthcare

In today’s rapidly advancing digital landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping industries, particularly in finance and healthcare. These sectors benefit significantly from AI’s ability to drive innovation and provide personalized services. However, the ethical, societal, and privacy implications of AI’s growth are increasingly pressing.

This project aims to address these concerns by developing a responsible AI framework that ensures ethical use, transparency, and fairness. The core issue tackled is the current centralized data infrastructure, which poses risks to privacy and perpetuates biases, concentrating power among a few dominant platforms. By transitioning to a decentralized data architecture, this project seeks to empower individuals and communities with greater control over their personal data, fostering an inclusive and equitable digital future.

This effort aligns with NSF’s mission to promote the progress of science and advance national health, prosperity, and welfare by creating a robust socio-technical foundation for AI that prioritizes privacy, accountability, and societal well-being.

The project focuses on planning and laying the groundwork for a decentralized data architecture that supports responsible AI development in finance and healthcare. During this phase, we will concentrate on three main components: 1) developing a decentralized data architecture, 2) creating responsible AI models trained on ethically sourced and curated data, and 3) designing an ecosystem that promotes fair value allocation and stakeholder participation.

The technical approach includes assembling a multidisciplinary team to conduct preliminary research, develop a prototype decentralized data agent architecture, and engage in inclusive workshops to gather insights from diverse stakeholders. The project will implement federated learning techniques to ensure privacy-preserving data sharing and algorithmic fairness.

Furthermore, it will investigate new business models and governance frameworks to promote equitable benefit distribution within AI-enabled digital service ecosystems. By leveraging innovative privacy-preserving technologies and engaging with a wide range of perspectives, this planning phase aims to set the stage for a more detailed implementation in subsequent phases, ensuring that the project progresses towards creating a responsible AI ecosystem that benefits all members of society.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.