Here's why we need more diversity in AI

Imran Chaudhri, who created the iPhone's user interfaces and interactions, illustrated this point bluntly onstage at the Fast Company European Innovation Festival in Milan today. "Siri never worked for me," the accented British-American designer acknowledged, "and we worked on it." Chaudhri, who spent more than 20 years at Apple before cofounding the still-in-stealth startup Humane, was speaking on a panel about the pursuit of inclusive AI with Michael Jones, the senior director of product at Salesforce AI Research. As evidence of AI's susceptibility to bias increases, the pair agreed that having diverse data sets is essential to creating automated systems that transcend--rather than replicate--the flaws of the real world. "We have an implicit bias in society today," Chaudhri said.