Experts warn AI could hardwire sexism into our future - 0 views
-
Cécile Christodoulou on 05 Dec 18"In her talk, called "Memoirs of Geisha: Building AI without gender bias," [Laura Andina, a Product Manager at Telefonica Digital] explained AI's gender bias by taking a look at Apple's pioneering of skeuomorphic design - a design method that replicates what a product would look like in real-life, as well as taking into account how the physical product would be used." "Receptionists, customer service representatives, and assistants have traditionally been female-dominated careers. Women have had to be helpful, friendly, and patient because it's their job. The skeuomorphic design of an AI assistant therefore would be female. For Andina, it's essential to break these gender biases in design to be able to make real-world changes. If new technology would stop peddling old stereotypes, women would have an easier time moving up the ranks professionally without being cast as assistants or any other "helpful" stereotype." "To avoid hardwiring sexism and gender bias into our future, one possible solution, according to Andina, would be providing a genderless voice for AI technology. But it won't be easy to make - most genderless voices sound too robotic. Human-sounding voices are more trustworthy, so this could deter users."