Why AI Needs To Reflect Society

While artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to solve an incredible spectrum of problems and challenges in our lives, our work and our world, there is a widening disconnect between the people who are introducing and deploying AI-based solutions and those who set policies for when and how these solutions are used. Much has been written about one consequence of this disconnect--algorithmic bias in AI systems, in which machine learning algorithms trained on data that reflects historical discrimination replicate and even magnify it. But there's another pressing issue: There are many missed opportunities to use AI for the good of many. Just as AI systems susceptible to bias are a problem, so too is inadequate focus on contributions that improve the lives of marginalized communities, such as Black and brown individuals, economically vulnerable populations and many other groups whose interests are underserved in society. If teams that set research directions, write algorithms or deploy them are made up of individuals with similar backgrounds and experiences, then we will end up with research that is to the benefit of a similarly narrow and already privileged subset of society.