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It’s never been more important for companies to ensure that their AI systems function safely, especially as new laws to hold them accountable kick in. The responsible AI teams they set up to do that are supposed to be a priority, but investment in it is still lagging behind.
People working in the field suffer as a result, as I found in my latest piece. Organizations place huge pressure on individuals to fix big, systemic problems without proper support, while they often face a near-constant barrage of aggressive criticism online.
The problem also feels very personal—AI systems often reflect and exacerbate the worst aspects of our societies, such as racism and sexism. The problematic technologies range from facial recognition systems that classify Black people as gorillas to deepfake software used to make porn videos of women who have not consented. Dealing with these issues can be especially taxing to women, people of color, and other marginalized groups, who tend to gravitate toward AI ethics jobs.
I spoke with a bunch of ethical-AI practitioners about the challenges they face in their work, and one thing was clear: burnout is real, and it’s harming the entire field. Read my story here.
Two of the people I spoke to in the story are pioneers of applied AI ethics: Margaret Mitchell and Rumman Chowdhury, who now work at Hugging Face and Twitter, respectively. Here are their top tips for surviving in the industry.
1. Be your own advocate. Despite growing mainstream awareness about the risks AI poses, ethicists still find themselves fighting to be recognized by colleagues. Machine-learning culture has historically not been great at acknowledging the needs of people. “No matter how confident or loud the people in the meeting are [who are] talking or speaking against what you’re doing—that doesn’t mean they’re right,” says Mitchell. “You have to be prepared to be your own advocate for your own work.”
Continue reading: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/01/1062474/how-to-survive-as-an-ai-ethicist/
It’s never been more important for companies to ensure that their AI systems function safely, especially as new laws to hold them accountable kick in. The responsible AI teams they set up to do that are supposed to be a priority, but investment in it is still lagging behind.
People working in the field suffer as a result, as I found in my latest piece. Organizations place huge pressure on individuals to fix big, systemic problems without proper support, while they often face a near-constant barrage of aggressive criticism online.
The problem also feels very personal—AI systems often reflect and exacerbate the worst aspects of our societies, such as racism and sexism. The problematic technologies range from facial recognition systems that classify Black people as gorillas to deepfake software used to make porn videos of women who have not consented. Dealing with these issues can be especially taxing to women, people of color, and other marginalized groups, who tend to gravitate toward AI ethics jobs.
I spoke with a bunch of ethical-AI practitioners about the challenges they face in their work, and one thing was clear: burnout is real, and it’s harming the entire field. Read my story here.
Two of the people I spoke to in the story are pioneers of applied AI ethics: Margaret Mitchell and Rumman Chowdhury, who now work at Hugging Face and Twitter, respectively. Here are their top tips for surviving in the industry.
1. Be your own advocate. Despite growing mainstream awareness about the risks AI poses, ethicists still find themselves fighting to be recognized by colleagues. Machine-learning culture has historically not been great at acknowledging the needs of people. “No matter how confident or loud the people in the meeting are [who are] talking or speaking against what you’re doing—that doesn’t mean they’re right,” says Mitchell. “You have to be prepared to be your own advocate for your own work.”
Continue reading: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/01/1062474/how-to-survive-as-an-ai-ethicist/
