Ethical Considerations in Explainable AI: Balancing Transparency and User Privacy in English Language-based Virtual Assistants

English Language-Based Virtual Assistants (ELB-VAs) are AI-powered systems designed to comprehend and respond to user queries in the English language, exemplified by virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa. The need for balancing transparency and user privacy in ELB-VAs is paramount due to their pervasive integration into daily life. Ensuring transparency imbues user trust, while safeguarding privacy addresses ethical concerns associated with personal data. Existing methods involve clear privacy policies, user-controlled data sharing settings, and encryption. However, drawbacks include user confusion and potential biases. To address these limitations, this study proposes a novel approach. Methodologically, it integrates pre-processing techniques such as lowercasing and tokenization, coupled with a Natural Language Understanding model. This model undergoes intent and entity recognition training, enhancing accuracy, and incorporates privacy-aware response generation, ensuring informative yet privacy-conscious interactions. The implementation of the study's results is carried out using Python tools, showcasing improved metrics and response times. This approach contributes to a more transparent and privacy-respecting user experience, aligning with evolving ethical norms and setting the stage for advancements in ELB-VA technology. This comprehensive exploration bridges existing gaps, emphasizing the ethical imperative of user-centric and privacy-aware AI interactions in ELB- VAs. The proposed NLU model exhibits a substantial increase in accuracy compared to other methods, with an impressive accuracy value of 99.1
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• On average, it outperforms the Random Forest and Decision Tree models by 15.7 percentage points, highlighting its superior predictive capabilities in the evaluated task. This comprehensive exploration aligns with evolving ethical norms and establishes a foundation for future advancements in ELB-VA technology.