How a feminist approach to design is the key to tackling bias in AI
itsnicethat.com
itsnicethat.com
However I don't understand how they can point to unequal representation of all groups in a field and say that it's a problem. Assuming that all groups require equal representation assumes that all groups are equally distributed in a population and that all different kinds of people should have an equally distributed interest in all fields. This is obviously not the case. I will adamantly oppose any kind of legislation or policy that seeks to restrict any individual based off of the "groups" that they belong to, whether that be gender, race, religion, ice cream preference, etc. However to go further and try to actively include people based off their group identity is fundamentally guided by the same assumption that causes discrimination based off of groups. It is reducing the individual to the intersection of the groups they belong to and not regarding them as the free agent that they are.
"[statistics about how different "groups" of people aren't all equally represented in all fields]. Clearly, something needs to be done about these issues. We’re hardwired for bias"
Am I the only one who sees this statement as ironic? Their own bias is that this is an issue - not a result of individuals making choices.
Except that they don't. They both use feminine voice in the US market, but Siri is male in many countries. Countries with British English, French, Dutch and Arabic all have masculine voice as the default.
That siri and google voice assistants is a reflection on user studies. Apple apparently did unique studies in all countries which they customized their phone for and thus they use different defaults depending on where the phone is sold.