Why Sociology Holds the Key to Building Truly Inclusive Artificial Intelligence
Understanding how social inequalities are embedded in data and decision-making is essential for creating equitable AI
Introduction
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming our world, but to fulfill its potential to benefit all of humanity, we must ensure it creates technology upholding principles of inclusion, diversity, and fairness. As valued as technical competence undoubtedly is, incorporating sociological guidance is equally important for developing AI responsibly.
Understanding Embedded Social Inequalities
Any data used to train AI systems reflects the social world that produced it, carrying the weight of real-world inequalities. As researchers point out, data related to attributes like zip codes and medical records often also contain information about race, gender, and socioeconomic status due to segregation and inequities in our society. Seeing individuals as neutral data or solely focusing on individual biases misses this systemic…
