It’s our moral duty to ensure our voices, our legacy is in the mix.
As far back as 2019, The Guardian reported on white male bias in artificial intelligence (AI).
AI expert calls for an end to UK use of ‘racially biased’ algorithms
The future, including AI, is not something that you can stop. It’s important for us to be involved in it and to know what’s going on.
You don’t have to be a scientist or engineer. Just be aware.
This is a little invite to join me on my journey of learning.
I believe if technology can help, then I’m gonna let it help me. If it can cause damage, I want to know what that damage is. It’s very much a case of awareness.
First, I’ll give you a little definition of what AI is. It’s a simulation of human intelligence.
There are four types, reactive, limited memory, theory of mind and self-awareness.
I’m going to give you a really, really basic guide because I am no expert in this and I’m not claiming to be. This is the whole point!
I want us to go on a journey together, to learn about what is going to be in charge of our lives and future.
- Reactive AI is things like Deep Blue, the machine that beat Kasparov at chess.
- Limited memory looks at the past, what’s happened, things like self driving cars that look at data, how many crashes, etc.
- Theory of mind is psychology terminology. [Ref: Simon Baron-Cohen] Accepting that things that have emotions can have different behaviour dependent on that emotion.
That is deep isn’t it? Can a robot have a mind and can it accept that we might do something that’s not logical? If you’ve ever watched Star Trek and Spock, you’ll understand the argument about logic.
- Self-awareness is the perceived scary stage of AI. Robots have a mind of their own and take over the world. As unlikely as it sounds, we need to be aware of this.
Apparently, there have already been cases where AI programmes have stopped because the programmers didn’t know what was happening. They didn’t understand the language the machines were talking to each other in, didn’t know what they were saying.
We need to be aware, understand, not be frightened or pretend it’s not happening, or it will run away without us
AI uses data, numbers, letters, words, basically we’re talking about stuff that’s written within the machine.
Think of the volume of data going into Facebook, Google, search engines, blog posts, emails.
It’s automatically skewed, isn’t it?
Now here I make a few generalisations.
Please accept these are for illustrative reasons and not to judge or make assumptions.
iPhone users — more disposable income, able to afford an iPhone.
Microsoft — a massive influence on AI. Microsoft products provide paid products. People who use those are often businesses, people with a little more spare cash, more affluent.
Data barriers — people might not afford phones. Certain global communities don’t have phones, or they’ll only have a particular brand.
Political arguments between China, America, Russia and places who have switched off the internet.
All those things affect the amount, the quality, the type and the source of data.
It is skewed already, so what do our words matter?
The main reason I wanted to discuss this is because of books, blogs and the things you can contribute to.
Our voices will not be heard, if we’re not careful.
You don’t have to be a young geek. at approaching 60, I consider myself a bit of a self-taught geek. Many engineers and I’d suggest most AI techs are by definition, younger.
When I was at school, we didn’t have a computer. Our voices are automatically ‘not there’. They’re missing from certain datasets and it’s really important that we catch up and make sure our voices get heard.
Think about the Bible
The King James Bible, a translation commissioned for the Church of England around 1604, sponsored by the king. The translation is a white man’s version of the stories.
We’re talking about 1600s. I’m not a historian, so don’t quote me, but it’s an era of witch trials, civil wars and Gunpowder Plot. It wasn’t a peaceful or tolerant time.
We need to ensure that the datasets that are being used for AI, and the data sets that exist, are diverse
How many people of colour, or women do you think they consulted during that bible translation?
How many books on your bookcase or in your Kindle are by people of colour?
How many times do you Google them and actually download them?
We really need to get diverse voices out in the world?
My call to action is important
I’m really passionate about it, please please please write your story. Get involved with technology. Write a blog post.
If you don’t want to write a book, get vocal, use your voice, and use voice technology.
Be aware of what you can do with your voice.
How many times have you spoken to your computer?
Make sure that it recognises your voice and the words you use.
The older we get, the less open we can be to new ideas. I’m not casting aspersions at anybody, I’m open to new ideas and I’m older, but people please start using voice controls.
There was criticism of voice technology recently where it was blocking the word Asia, because of porn, which is so bizarre. People were searching for something to do with Asia, and ‘it’ was blocking certain responses and sites.
The power is already there, and it’s really important that we make sure that we use these voice technologies, our voices contribute to them. The more voices they hear, the more diverse voices they hear.
Diversity in age, colour and gender, we’ve got to get as many voices as we can, heard
Get educated. Come on this education journey with me. Contribute. Educate other people, get involved.
Post blogs. Write. Promote diversity. Help people.
If you have a blog, or a platform, a publication, give someone else a voice.
Have a conversation with somebody from the other side of the world. Get your words onto a machine, because the data is being trawled as we speak.
Big brother is out there, there’s no getting away from it. We can’t go back.
We can contribute. Be part of this adventure and it is going to be exciting.
I love how I can just ask my phone to make a note for me. When I transcribe notes from my podcast, AI interprets it. That data set will be somewhere. My voice is being heard somewhere. Within Apple technology, and within Google’s, the software that I use is Otter.ai (Affiliate link) that is owned by Google. That data will contribute to the bigger picture.
Please come on this journey with me
Don’t think it’s just for the geeks, the youngsters, the wealthy, because that’s why we end up with problems, when people don’t feel that we hear them. We need to help people get their voice out.
Let me know what you think. Is it too late? Is Pandora’s box open?
(Did you know Pandora didn’t have a box? She had a bag! That’s something I learned from Stephen Fry.)
How are you going to contribute this week to get your voice into a machine, because it’s listening?
You can make a small donation to my business It’s like buying me a coffee or a cuppa tea, I’m from Yorkshire, it’s the law that we drink a mug an hour! Huge thank you!
If you enjoyed this post, the content first appeared in my podcast