While sharing some attributes, ‘accountability’ is not to be confused with ‘responsibility.’

‘Accountability’ is an allocation of measurement or evaluation (of blame or award)  after a given event, as its outcome is measured or perceived.Following the finalization or interruption of processes that created an event and its results, an individual is held accountable. One then has an obligation to report, to explain, or to justify the effect, the outcome and how these affect or impact.    Accountability relates to one’s commitment, to one’s response and to one taking ownership, with clarity, of the output or result of a given process and its (undesirable or desirable) consequences. It relates to the goodness of the result, and of its consequences. Often accountability is allocated to a single individual (if not, a blame-game could follow). One has accountability, and one is held accountable. An accountable individual, or organzation, is one that is transparent about its decision-making processes, and is willing to explain and justify its actions to others. The measurement of accountability can be done by oversight, by investigating compliance, by analysis of reporting, and by allowing enforcement of reprimands, sanctions or legal steps where judged necessary.

One could distinguish that having the ownership over a task, that must be done, is ‘responsibility.’ Responsibility implies duty of one, or more than one individual, as a team. It relates to the rightness of taking action in completing a task.  One takes responsibility, and one is responsible for doing a task.

Accountability “implies an ethical, moral, or other expectation (e.g., as set out in management practices or codes of conduct) that guides individuals’ or organisations’ actions or conduct and allows them to explain reasons for which decisions and actions were taken. In the case of a negative outcome, it also implies taking action to ensure a better outcome in the future…  In this context, “accountability” refers to the expectation that organisations or individuals will ensure the proper functioning, throughout their lifecycle, of the AI systems that they design, develop, operate or deploy, in accordance with their roles and applicable regulatory frameworks, and for demonstrating this through their actions and decision-making process (for example, by providing documentation on key decisions throughout the AI system lifecycle or conducting or allowing auditing where justified.” (OECD)

References

https://oecd.ai/en/dashboards/ai-principles/P9

European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). (n.d.). Accountability. Online. Last retrieved on April, 10 2023 fromhttps://edps.europa.eu/data-protection/our-work/subjects/accountability_en

Pentland, Alex, and Thomas Hardjono. “10. Towards an Ecosystem of Trusted Data and AI.” Works in Progress, n.d., 13. Last retrieved on 26 July 2022 from https://assets.pubpub.org/72uday26/19e47ad0-9cae-4dbf-b2cb-b38cd38d9434.pdf