Bias in Artificial Intelligence
The world we live in is filled with cameras, watching your every move, your every step, your every glance. The near-omnipotent power of surveillance is something that many people fear, but this fear should only be exacerbated with the introduction of new and improved surveillance. This improvement can only be made with the advent of artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence is an immensely powerful tool that has the power to revolutionize the processing and usage of information forever. This is useful in several industries as it increases efficiency. The downside of this is that there is much room for potential violations of privacy. When an AI is watching your every move it's hard to feel secure and that your not being watched. But legislators seem to this is a good idea as cities such as Chicago and New York have moved towards increased surveillance in the goal of safety and security.
An example of this increased surveillance can be in my home city of New York's increase in surveillance by both the transportation and police in the city. Although the surveillance for safety is somewhat believable the new ai surveillance that has been rolled out by the MTA is nothing more than horrifying. The MTA has recently admitted to installing new cameras as several different stations to photograph fare-evaders.
If you know anything about the big apple you are familiar with how popular fare-hopping is. People go through the emergency exit doors, jump over the turnstiles, or, if your tall enough, simply walk over it. It has been estimated that the MTA has lost hundreds of millions of dollars per year due to fare-evasion, which can most definitely benefit the MTA as they are on a billion-dollar mountain of debt. But the way they plan to end this is quite strange. Using the new Artificial Intelligence technology the MTA aims to locate and photograph potential fare evaders.
With the goal of sending these images to the NYPD to arrest fare evaders and even give them a ticket, which in New York can cost anywhere from 100 to 200 dollars. What many are afraid of is the bias that has been shown through many Artificial Intelligences. The AI may assume that black and Hispanic customers may be more likely to jump turnstiles and thus arrest disproportionately affected People of Color.
It has already been shown that many police officers give tickets disproportionately to people of color, despite black and Hispanic individuals having the same frequency of fare-evading as white individuals. This problem has been at the forefront of many artificial intelligence groups as AI bias has become a bigger and bigger issue that has caught the attention of different corporations, colleges, and organizations that have the endgoal of creating a more equitable society.
MIT has been at the forefront of the movement for the reduction in AI bias with their Gender and Race Studies department having a variety of individuals. Hopefully with all the effort data scientists put into changing the shown bias with Artificial Intelligence the future that is lined up for all people regardless of first appearences.
