Keeping Artificial Intelligence Accountable to Humans

As a teenager in Nigeria, I tried to build an artificial intelligence system. I was inspired by the same dream that motivated the pioneers in the field: That we could create an intelligence of pure logic and objectivity that would free humanity from human error and human foibles. I was working with weak computer systems and intermittent electricity, and needless to say my AI project failed. Eighteen years later--as an engineer researching artificial intelligence, privacy, and machine-learning algorithms--I'm seeing that so far, the premise that AI can free us from subjectivity or bias is also disappointing. We are creating intelligence in our own image.