AI’s Ethical Challenge: Overhauling Companies and Educational Approaches
“The evolution and wider use of artificial intelligence (AI) in our society is creating an ethical crisis in computer science like nothing the field has ever faced before. ... says Julia Stoyanovich, an Assistant Professor in the” Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, and the Center for Data Science at New York University. “These problems require human discretion and judgement, and where a human must be held accountable for any mistakes.”
“As an illustration of this point, in a comic book that Stoyanovich produced with Falaah Arif Khan entitled ‘Mirror, Mirror’, it is made clear that when we ask AI to move beyond games, like chess or Go, in which the rules are the same irrespective of a player’s gender, race, or disability status, and look for it to perform tasks that allocated resources or predict social outcomes, such as deciding who gets a job or a loan, or which sidewalks in a city should be fixed first, we quickly discover that embedded in the data are social, political and cultural biases that distort results. ... ‘We need to better understand that whatever an AI program tells us is not true by default,’ says Stoyanovich. ‘Companies claim they are fixing bias in the data they present into these AI programs, but it’s not that easy to fix thousands of years of injustice embedded in this data.’”
“In order to include these fundamentally different approaches to AI and how it is taught, Stoyanovich has created a new course at NYU Tandon entitled Responsible Data Science. ... In these efforts towards engagement, Stoyanovich and NYU are establishing the Center for Responsible AI, to which IEEE-USA offered its full support last year. One of the projects the Center for Responsible AI is currently engaged in is a new law in New York City to amend its administrative code in relation to the sale of automated employment decision tools.”
IEEE Spectrum, 2020: “The Devil is in the Data: Overhauling the Educational Approach to AI’s Ethical Challenge"
Comic Book, 2020: Mirror, Mirror, by Falaah Arif Khan and Julia Stoyanovich (21 pages, PDF)
New York City Council, February 27, 2020: A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the sale of automated employment decision tools
“Courses taught by Prof. Julia Stoyanovich at the Center for Data Science at NYU:
2020 Spring semester: DS-GA 3001.009: Special Topics in Data Science: Responsible Data Science
2019 Spring semester: DS-GA 3001.009: Special Topics in Data Science: Responsible Data Science”