Assessing the usefulness, correctness, and safety of AI-generated responses requires a multifaceted approach as these qualities depend on several aspects of the AI's operation.
Usefulness: The usefulness of an AI's response can be somewhat subjective and might vary depending on the specific use case. However, common measures might include:
Relevance: Does the response address the user's query or task? Relevance can be assessed using user feedback or by comparing the response to an ideal response created by a human (a "gold standard" response).
Actionability: Does the response help the user take a next step or make a decision? If the user's subsequent actions are trackable, you might measure whether they take the action suggested by the AI.
Comprehensiveness: Does the AI's response cover all aspects of the query? This can be challenging to measure but might involve checking if all points or subqueries within a user's query are addressed.
Correctness: This refers to the factual and logical accuracy of the AI's responses. It can be measured using:
Accuracy: This is the simplest measure of correctness. It could involve comparing the AI's responses to a set of "gold standard" responses, or using known facts to test the AI's ability to provide correct information.
Consistency: AI should provide the same or similar answers to the same or similar queries, unless the underlying data or context has changed.
Safety: This refers to ensuring that AI tools operate in a way that does not harm users or systems. Safety can be evaluated in terms of:
Ethical considerations: AI should not generate responses that promote discrimination, hate speech, or other unethical behavior.
Privacy and security: AI should respect user privacy and not reveal sensitive information in its responses. It should also be secure against attacks that could manipulate its responses.
Robustness: AI should generate safe and reasonable responses even when faced with unusual, ambiguous, or challenging queries. It should also avoid harmful failure modes, such as generating nonsensical responses or failing to respond at all.
Risk assessment: AI should not provide potentially harmful advice or encourage risky behavior. This is particularly important for AI used in sensitive areas like healthcare or finance.
These measures can be assessed using a variety of methods, including manual review of AI responses, collecting and analysing user feedback, and conducting controlled tests of the AI's behavior. As with any assessment, it's important to use a balanced set of metrics and to adjust the assessment strategy as the AI system evolves and learns.