The Future of A.I. for Good

The A.I. industry has powered a futuristic reality of self-driving cars and voice assistants to help us with almost any need. However, the A.I. Industry has also created systematic challenges. For instance, while it has led to platforms where workers label data to improve machine learning algorithms, my research has uncovered that these workers earn less than minimum wage. We are also seeing the surge of A.I. algorithms that privilege certain populations and racially exclude others. If we were able to fix such challenges we could engender greater societal justice and enable A.I. that better addresses people’s needs, especially groups we have traditionally excluded. In this talk, I will discuss some of the urgent global A.I. problems that my research has uncovered. I will present how we can start to address these problems through my proposed "A.I. For Good" framework. My framework uses value sensitive design and social justice frameworks to understand people's values, the challenges they face, and rectify harm. I will present case-studies where I use this framework to design A.I. systems that improve fairness, well-being, and quality at work. I conclude by presenting a research agenda for studying the impact of A.I. in society; and researching effective socio-technical solutions in favor of the future of work and countering techno-authoritarianism.