AI MUST READS — W40 2018, by City AI
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and related fields are in a constant state of change. We want to inform but also encourage discussions on well presented topics we think are necessary in the context of putting AI into production. Every week we’re picking applied AI’s best articles plus adding a discussion starter
1. Amazon Reportedly Killed an AI Recruitment System Because It Couldn’t Stop the Tool from Discriminating Against Women
Author — David Meyer (Follow on Twitter) via Fortune
Fabio Chiusi — “ Yet another example of why an ethics approach to machine learning is so important: “In effect, Amazon’s system taught itself that male candidates were preferable”
Business Insider has also written an article about this development and they state that —
“This was apparently because the AI combed through predominantly male résumés submitted to Amazon over a 10-year period to accrue data about whom to hire.
Consequently, the AI concluded that men were preferable. It reportedly downgraded résumés containing the words “women’s” and filtered out candidates who had attended two women-only colleges.”
If this was true (it is also reported by the fortune article), then in fact perhaps it wasn’t the fault of those who built the Artificial Intelligence sentence, but instead those who controlled the input data the system was fed. Yes, it can be argued that the recognition of the factor of a male-dominated industry should have been obvious and therefore compensated for, and its an argument that I also believe.
In actuallity it would seem that whilst also managing to be sexist, it also failed resolutely as even selecting a good male candidate, instead selecting applications based instead upon those with certain buzzwords (as can be seen by the Article by the Mirror), which, in a humourous manner means the AI system acted no better than an poor human parallel.
2. Multiple Medical Announcements
2.1 AI could predict cognitive decline leading to Alzheimer’s disease in the next five years
2.2 NUS researchers use AI to successfully treat metastatic cancer patient
2.3 Google AI can spot advanced breast cancer more effectively than humans
To speak of each of these advancements seperately would offer no more information and I’d fail to offer any more intelligent input than already included, as my knowledge on medical applications of Artificial Intelligence is limited at best. What I will add is that if the recent uptick of articles around medical advancements fueled AI is indicative of a “real-world” trailblazer within A.I applications, then perhaps we will begin to see greater investment and greater impact.
