{"id":35832,"date":"2020-12-04T03:51:31","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T11:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=35832"},"modified":"2020-12-07T11:28:22","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T19:28:22","slug":"our-rights-in-the-age-of-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2020\/12\/04\/our-rights-in-the-age-of-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Our rights in the age of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, chief executive officer and founder of Parity, gave the keynote address at the Simces & Rabkin Family Dialogue on Human Rights. (photo from rummanchowdhury.com<\/a>)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Data and social scientist Dr. Rumman Chowdhury provided a wide-ranging analysis on the state of artificial intelligence and the implications it has on human rights in a Nov. 19 talk. The virtual event was organized by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg and Vancouver\u2019s Zena Simces and Dr. Simon Rabkin for the second annual Simces & Rabkin Family Dialogue on Human Rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still need human beings thinking even if AI systems \u2013 no matter how sophisticated they are \u2013 are telling us things and giving us input,\u201d said Chowdhury, who is the chief executive officer and founder of Parity, a company that strives to help businesses maintain high ethical standards in their use of AI.<\/p>\n

A common misperception of AI is that it looks like futuristic humanoids or robots, like, for example, the ones in Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s 1999 video for her song \u201cAll is Full of Love.\u201d But, said Chowdhury, artificial intelligence is instead computer code, algorithms or programming language \u2013 and it has limitations.<\/p>\n

\u201cCars do not drive us. We drive cars. We should not look at AI as though we are not part of the discussion,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"screenshot<\/a>
In her presentation Nov. 19 at the Simces & Rabkin Family Dialogue on Human Rights, Dr. Rumman Chowdhury highlighted the 2006 Montreal Declaration of Human Rights.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 2006 Montreal Declaration of Human Rights has served as an important framework in the age of artificial intelligence. The central tenets of that declaration include well-being, respect for autonomy and democratic participation. Around those concepts, Chowdhury addressed human rights in the realms of health, education and privacy.<\/p>\n

Pre-existing biases have permeated healthcare AI, she said, citing the example of a complicated algorithm from care provider Optum that prioritized less sick white patients over more sick African-American patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, doctors have ignored or downplayed symptoms in Black patients and given preferential treatment to white patients \u2013 this is literally in the data,\u201d explained Chowdhury. \u201cTaking that data and putting it into an algorithm simply trains it to repeat the same actions that are baked into the historical record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other reports have shown that an algorithm used in one region kept Black patients from getting kidney transplants, leading to patient deaths, and that COVID-19 relief allocations based on AI were disproportionately underfunding minority communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll algorithms have bias because there is no perfect way to predict the future. The problem occurs when the biases become systematic, when there is a pattern to them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Chowdhury suggested that citizens have the right to know when algorithms are being used, so that the programs can be examined critically and beneficial outcomes to all people can be ensured, with potential harms being identified and corrected responsibly.<\/p>\n

With respect to the increased use of technology in education, she asked, \u201cHas AI \u2018disrupted\u2019 education or has it simply created a police state?\u201d Here, too, she offered ample evidence of how technology has sometimes gone off course. For instance, she shared a news report from this spring from the United Kingdom, where an algorithm was used by the exam regulator Ofqual to determine the grades of students. For no apparent reason, the AI system downgraded the results of 40% of the students, mostly those in vulnerable economic situations.<\/p>\n

Closer to home, a University of British Columbia professor, Ian Linkletter, was sued this year by the tech firm Proctorio for a series of tweets critical of its remote testing software, which the university was using. Linkletter shared his concerns that this kind of technology does not, in his mind, foster a love of learning in the way it monitors students and he called attention to the fact that a private company is collecting and storing data on individuals.<\/p>\n

To combat the pernicious aspects of ed tech from bringing damaging consequences to schooling, Chowdhury thinks some fundamental questions should be asked. Namely, what is the purpose of educational technology in terms of the well-being of the student? How are students\u2019 rights protected? How can the need to prevent the possibility that some students may cheat on exams be balanced with the rights of the majority of students?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are choosing technology that punishes rather than that which enables and nurtures,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Next came the issue of privacy, which, Chowdhury asserted, \u201cis fascinating because we are seeing this happen in real-time. Increasingly, we have a blurred line between public and private.\u201d<\/p>\n

She distinguished between choices that a member of the public may have as a consumer in submitting personal data to a company like Amazon versus a government organization. While a person can decide not to purchase from a particular company, they cannot necessarily opt out of public services, which also gather personal information and use technology \u2013 and this is a \u201ccritical distinction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chowdhury showed the audience a series of disturbing news stories from over the past couple of years. In 2018, the New Orleans Police Department, after years of denial, admitted to using AI that sifted through data from social media and criminal history to predict when a person would commit a crime. Another report came from the King\u2019s Cross district of London, which has one of the highest concentrations of facial-recognition cameras of any region in the world outside of China, according to Chowdhury. The preponderance of surveillance technology in our daily lives, she warned, can bring about what has been deemed a \u201cchilling effect,\u201d or a reluctance to engage in legitimate protest or free speech, due to the fear of potential legal repercussions.<\/p>\n

Then there are the types of surveillance used in workplaces. \u201cMore and more companies are introducing monitoring tech in order to ensure that their employees are not \u2018cheating\u2019 on the job,\u201d she said. These technologies can intrude by secretly taking screenshots of a person\u2019s computer while they are at work, and mapping the efficiency of employees through algorithms to determine who might need to be laid off.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll this is happening at a time of a pandemic, when things are not normal. Instead of being treated as a useful contributor, these technologies make employees seem like they are the enemy,\u201d said Chowdhury.<\/p>\n

How do we enable the rights of both white- and blue-collar workers? she asked. How can we protect our right to peaceful and legitimate protest? How can AI be used in the future in a way that allows humans to reach their full potential?<\/p>\n

In her closing remarks, Chowdhury asked, \u201cWhat should AI learn from human rights?\u201d She introduced the term \u201chuman centric\u201d \u2013 \u201cHow can designers, developers and programmers appreciate the role of the human rights narrative in developing AI systems equitably?\u201d<\/p>\n

She concluded, \u201cHuman rights frameworks are the only ones that place humans first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Award-winning technology journalist and author Amber Mac\u00a0moderated the lecture, which was opened by Angeliki Bogiatji, the interpretive program developer for the museum. Isha Khan, the museum\u2019s new chief executive officer, welcomed viewers, while Simces gave opening remarks and Rabkin closed the broadcast.<\/p>\n

Sam Margolis<\/strong> has written for the <\/em>Globe and Mail, the <\/em>National Post, UPI and MSNBC.<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Note: This article has been corrected to reflect that it was technology journalist and author Amber Mac who moderated the lecture.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, chief executive officer and founder of Parity, gave the keynote address at the Simces & Rabkin Family Dialogue on Human Rights. (photo from rummanchowdhury.com) Data and social scientist Dr. Rumman Chowdhury provided a wide-ranging analysis on the state of artificial intelligence and the implications it has on human rights in a Nov. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9094,2143,2135,1808,3076,2864,1122,3116,20051,9220,1881,9219],"class_list":["post-35832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-ai","tag-canadian-museum-for-human-rights","tag-cmhr","tag-dialogue","tag-education","tag-health","tag-human-rights","tag-privacy","tag-rumman-chowdhury","tag-simon-rabkin","tag-technology","tag-zena-simces"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}