Is Artificial Intelligence White?

The "whiteness" of artificial intelligence (AI) removes people of colour from the way humanity thinks about its technology-enhanced future, researchers argue. University of Cambridge experts suggest current portrayals and stereotypes about AI risk creating a "racially homogenous" workforce of aspiring technologists, creating machines with bias baked into their algorithms. The scientists say cultural depictions of AI as white need to be challenged, as they do not offer a "post-racial" future but rather one from which people of colour are simply erased. In their paper, "The Whiteness of AI" published in the journal, Philosophy and Technology, Leverhulme CFI Executive Director, Stephen Cave and Dr Kanta Dihal offer insights into the ways in which portrayals of AI stem from, and perpetuate, racial inequalities. Cave and Dihal cite research showing that people perceive race in AI, not only in human-like robots, but also in abstracted and disembodied AI.