From my talk on AI and Human Rights in January of 2022…

A tiny, tiny proportion of humanity (3 million AI engineers is 0.0004% of the world's population) has the knowledge and power to build machines that are "intelligent" enough to potentially decide who gets a job, who can obtain financial aid, who the courts trust, or whose DNA and biometric data will be harvested by marketers.

We have a technology in the hands of a few, born in societies of abundance, and powerful enough to shape the outcome of lives across the planet.

This asymmetry of knowledge and power is a core challenge for human rights. An algorithm that is oppressive, racist, bigoted, misogynous and unfair can be all those things more efficiently than any human.

All while maintaining an aura of "neutrality" and superior smartness.

We are creating a more efficient version of the past instead of reimagining the future we want.

There is something to be said for human inefficiency, the ability to pause and reflect, taking time to question and taking time to listen. Do we want to allow AI to erase the language, alphabets, culture and stories of poorer countries?

We need to figure out together what a more equal and peaceful world means. Only after that we discuss how AI can help us achieve the positive technical and ethical outcomes that will lead to that future.

Instead of shipping AI across the world we could be engaging in inclusive, pluriversal conversation about what that world should look like. What we keep and what we remove. Whose voices matter.

I believe in AI. I believe in its enormous power to assist understanding. I am not interested in stopping progress. I am urging all of us to to reconsider how progress is defined, and how it is distributed.

Video, slidedeck and transcript:
https://axbom.com/aihr/