AI is being increasingly used to make important decisions.
I am an AI researcher, andIm worriedabout some of the societal impacts that were already seeing.
Observations of fifth grade teacher Sarah Wysockis classroom yielded positive reviews.
Two months later, she was fired by an opaque algorithm, along with over 200 other teachers.
That people are losing needed healthcare without an explanation or being fired without explanation is truly dystopian!
How could this have been prevented?
Unfortunately, complex systems lend themselves to a dynamic in which nobody feels responsible for the outcome.
Im sure the state policy makers could blame the implementers of the software.
This passing of the buck and failure to take responsibility is common in many bureaucracies.
Asdanah boyd observed,Bureaucracy has often been used to shift or evade responsibility.
Another example of nobody feeling responsible comes from the case ofresearch to classify gang crime.
Im just an engineer, responded one of the authors.
I dont bring this up for the primary purpose of pointing fingers or casting blame.
What is going on?
When metrics are given undue importance, attempts to game those metrics become common.
Unfortunately, these companies have zero accountability.
The newsfeed/timeline/recommendation algorithms of all the major platforms tend to reward incendiary content, prioritizing it for users.
In early 2018,the UN ruledthat Facebook had played a determining role in the ongoing genocide in Myanmar.
Im afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, said the UN investigator.
As early as 2014, news outlets such asAl Jazeerawere covering Facebooks role in inciting ethnic violence in Myanmar.
One personclose to the casesaid, Thats not 20/20 hindsight.
The scale of this problem was significant and it was already apparent.
As of 2015, Facebook onlyemployed 4 contractorswho spoke Burmese (the primary language in Myanmar).
The credible threat of a large financial penalty may be the only thing Facebook responds to.
One major success story comes fromautomobile safety.
There are ways we can do better:
The problems we are facing can feel scary and complex.
However, it is still very early on in this age of AI and increasing algorithmic automation.
Technology is just a tool, and it can be used for good or bad.
