The Danger Of Overlooking AI Quality Control

InnovationThe Danger Of Overlooking AI Quality ControlByDaniel Schwartz,Forbes Councils Member.for Forbes Technology CouncilCOUNCIL POSTExpertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based)May 26, 2026, 08:00am EDTDaniel Schwartz, President of Design I.T. Solutions, LLC, a leading consulting, cybersecurity and managed IT services provider. getty​The AI race is on, and vendors are accelerating their push to the top. I believe we have a right to be concerned about the impact of AI on our well-being. However, it's not a droid army coming for us. It's much simpler than that.To understand what's happening, we need to look back at the Industrial Revolution. In many ways, today's AI-driven automation is a modern version of it. That era brought massive growth through automation and new ways of performing old tasks. Manufacturing improved, and products reached the market faster than ever before.That progress came with a cost, though. Early factories often lacked basic safety measures. Conveyor belts were installed without guardrails. Because quality controls and workplace protections hadn't caught up with the pace of innovation, workers were placed in physically dangerous environments.I believe we're seeing a similar pattern emerge with AI. As vendors race to outpace competitors with faster, more capable releases, safeguards can lag behind. Some AI systems have been accused of failing to appropriately respond to users in crisis—potentially pointing to missing safeguards.We're also seeing concerns between AI-assisted automation and vehicle-related incidents that have resulted in perilous situations. In healthcare, using AI to diagnose conditions or guide self-treatment can lead to misdiagnosis, delayed care or dangerous outcomes. None of this is an argument against AI adoption. The benefits are too significant to ignore. Rather, it's a clear signal that we ne...