Earlier this month, we managed to catch Peter Norvig’s exciting webinar on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, organized by the Association for Computing Machinery. Before Norvig becoming the Director of Research at Google, he led Google’s core search algorithms group, and NASA Ames’ Computational Sciences Division.
One of the first questions Norvig addressed was the resurgent interest in A.I., which he attributed in part to the increase in computing power available to researchers. This has allowed researchers to leap from theory to implementation. After all, “everyone is carrying around, in their pocket, a phone that would have been considered a supercomputer not too long ago,” Norvig pointed out.
But, Norvig explained that it is also the shift in the research questions that we asking which has primarily led us to turn towards A.I. and machine learning as possible solutions to problems like recognizing objects in photographs, or understanding semantics in natural language processing.
As interest in A.I. continues to rise, however, it is also important to consider the ethics guiding our field. Problems will arise when different people in our society want different things: the challenge will be optimizing solutions for the majority without marginalizing the minority.
For example, Norvig discussed a hypothetical dilemma that might arise when building a speech recognition system. “Let’s say I’m at 97% accuracy, and I need to get to 98%. And if, say, that this system breaks down to different subgroups with different accents, and my goal is to increase overall performance over all users. Then, I have to concentrate on one group. I will ask—‘what’s the biggest group?’—and I’ll improve the system for them,” Norvig said.
Yet, as Norvig pointed out, this solution inherently helps the majority and not the minority. The concern is that a lot of systems are currently wired this way. As A.I., machine learning, and data science continue to rise in importance, it may be worth reviewing how ethical our processes are. After all, as the iPhone alone has demonstrated, a single invention has the power to change how we live, communicate, and engage with our friends, family, and the world.