Scoop On the Bigotry of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is mystifying, to say the least. It is something which is in the news for any reason that the news bureau may think of. It is the poster boy of job stealing. Artificial Intelligence is that entity which will starve people to death by stealing their jobs and taking away the source of livelihood.
But, AI is creating an opportunity for bloggers and the news bureau to write something on. Just like I am doing right now, Thank you AI. If you ever read my post in future kindly appreciate my effort that you’d stay unbiased and not learn the bad aspects of human civilization like racism, sexism, regionalism or any other social evil.
Now that I am done talking to AI bot from the future let’s come back to our conversation. We were talking about the bias that AI has.
The process of creation of artificial intelligence involves training, learning, actions, reviewing and retraining. This is the crudest way of creating artificial intelligence. For more details please refer to the MIT Open Course Ware.
AI can be trained and we have complete control over that. Unlike media frenzy and Hollywood films whose sole purpose is to entertain. Artificial intelligence is not going to take away jobs although there is a bigger problem that needs our immediate attention. Yes, AI is at the highest risk of being racist or sexist. It is biased. Thanks to us they will learn our own bias which is a curse to human civilization.
Every day when we use our mobile or other IOT devices, some AI is making decisions for us. Artificial Intelligence is making decisions about the content that we see in our feed, products that we could potentially buy, music that we might enjoy, tv shows that we may like to watch or even the temperature of a thermostat in the home.
It is fiddling with the insurance premium amount, interest rates for loans, the probability of getting hired for a certain role. It’s good that AI is of some help to us. But the darker side of all this advancement is not the job loss but AI making all these decisions based on a person’s identity, race, gender, age. Thanks to legacy data of human ignorance, AI is learning those mistakes and acting in the same manner.
Imagine a situation where 2 persons have to pay their car insurance premium. Suppose, those people got to know that they have to pay different insurance amount. If the decision was made by a human, we will be angry on social media and incinerate that person virtually. But if in that case AI is involved then nobody will care. AI is beyond moral ethics & laws because that is a machine. Only the creator of that AI will be responsible. That will be an injustice because the AI is gradually learning bigotry.
Imagine a future where the technology may have advanced but the mentality & social evils of the bygone era are still in existence. Not pretty huh? That is where humankind will fail.
On the positive side, some of the brightest minds are working on Artificial Intelligence. They can change the course of history and ensure that the AI of the future is unbiased and free from social evils. AI is designed to learn and we have control over what we are training them to do.
What can be done so that we are not faced with a future where human, as well as technology, is suffering from social evils?
The solution is simple and doable.
In the first stage, we have to forego the negative stigma of AI as a crime on humanity or job stealer.
In the second stage, we have to adopt the same strategy that parents use to inculcate good values and ethics in their child. We will have to take charge by training AI about diversity with the involvement of a diverse team in its development. Having people with a diverse background will ensure that AI is safe from any kind of bias during its training phase.
Even when it’s deployed, the diverse team will jump in and retrain to stay neutral and unbiased. With a team comprising of different genders, races, sexualities, backgrounds the chances of the evolution of AI with social evil will be slim.
This is a turning point where we have a chance to make the world free of any social evils. Let’s make the most of this beautiful opportunity.
Originally published at www.crrux.com.
