When we examine whether technology is really serving us, we have to interrogate who we include when we think of us. In the attempt to increase productivity and make our work lives more convenient, we can unconsciously inconvenience others.<\/p>\n
Hilary Harvey, Associate Partner at TPC UK sheds light on the matter, \u201cThe fact that we embrace technology because it\u2019s new and it makes our lives convenient means we don\u2019t often stop to ask, \u2018Whose life isn\u2019t being made convenient through this? Who\u2019s not being included as a user in terms of the design thinking?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs human beings with conscious and unconscious biases, we structurally build them into algorithms. And particularly now when we are having such a global recognition of gender inequality and Black Lives Matter, tech is a fundamental part of it, and needs to be a part of the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Non-neutral algorithms<\/p>\n
Tech is not independent of the people who design it. \u201cWe, as the ordinary lay person, assume that tech is neutral,\u201d says Hilary. \u201cBut discrimination underpins our systems and our tech.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe we compartmentalise tech in our minds, disassociating it from social issues and relegating it to a category that includes numbers, equations and engineering. But we forget that since tech has started dealing with personal data its impact has become personal too.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many examples of discriminatory tech in social media.\u201d Hilary points to Twitter, who in an attempt to moderate comments, created an algorithm that could take \u201ctoxic\u201d comments down automatically. But if two people say words to the same effect, a black person\u2019s comments are twice more likely to be taken down than a white person\u2019s. \u201cAnd that\u2019s just the algorithm.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the consequences of discriminatory tech go far beyond social media. \u201cIn the UK the algorithm-decided exam results discriminated against a certain demographic of the population,\u201d says Hilary. \u201cAnd then just recently there was the Visa fast track program, which fast tracked you if you were white.\u201d<\/p>\n
The feedback loop of inequality<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how many times organisations say they\u2019re up for equality,\u201d says Hilary. \u201cIf it isn\u2019t reflected in the tech, we won\u2019t progress. The inequality will be embedded and we won\u2019t even see it because it is a part of our daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The consequences can be significant \u2013 affecting our society, our businesses and our boardrooms. This was evident when Carnegie Mellon University uncovered that Google\u2019s ad-targetting system was six times more likely to advertise high-paying jobs to men than women.<\/p>\n
\u201cA common mistake is training an algorithm to make predictions based on past decisions from biased humans,\u201d said a Metis senior data scientist in an interview with Live Science. And this kind of logic has creeped into tech used by the legal justice system.<\/p>\n
ProPublica\u2019s analysis of Northepointe\u2019s COMPAS formula revealed that the algorithm was \u201clikely to falsely flag black defendants as future criminals, wrongly labeling them this way at almost twice the rate as white defendants.\u201d And in addition, \u201cWhite defendants were mislabeled as low risk more often than black defendants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then in an attempt to predict crimes before they occurred, PredPol\u2019s machine learning algorithm sent police to locations with a high minority population. And because of the system\u2019s feedback loop, the newly increased number of arrests in that area mean that the algorithm is more likely to send police back there again.<\/p>\n
True investment in the future<\/p>\n
In our hurry to speed up processes, such as the UK passport photo check service, we can overlook underrepresented groups, which is why it is imperative to bring those groups into all levels of tech design and implementation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to have inclusion in education,\u201d says Hilary. \u201cAnd for education programs to sustain inclusion and high levels of diversity throughout the career pipeline.\u201d<\/p>\n
If equality isn\u2019t addressed in the tech, we will inevitably support a systemic problem, even if our intentions are apparently neutral. And as AI technology continues to develop and influence more areas of our lives and businesses, that injustice will only grow. As the U.S rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says, \u201cIf you don\u2019t fix the bias, then you are just automating the bias.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the wake of the pandemic, businesses are leaning on technological ecosystems more than ever before. And any issues that were present before are becoming more prevalent. It is now essential for us to examine who our technology is serving.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeaders have a responsibility to have a critical mindset,\u201d says Hilary. \u201cAnd to ask the question, \u2018How do we know that tech is neutral?\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When we examine whether technology is really serving us, we have to interrogate who we include when we think of us. In the attempt to increase productivity and make our …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_title":"Technology: Who\u2019s being included? Who\u2019s being ignored? - TPC Leadership","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_focus_keyword":"","editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"featured-blog-post":[],"page-type":[],"class_list":["post-4980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-desenvolvimento-de-lideranca"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/br-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/br-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/br-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/br-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/br-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/br-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8161,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/br-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4980\/revisions\/8161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/br-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/br-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/br-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/br-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4980"},{"taxonomy":"featured-blog-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/br-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured-blog-post?post=4980"},{"taxonomy":"page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tpcleadership.com\/br-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/page-type?post=4980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}