19 Feb 2019
By Alison Maitland
How vulnerable are we humans to smart machines? We got a nasty glimpse of the possibilities with the air travel chaos caused by drone sightings over London’s Gatwick airport in the busy run up to Christmas.
The drone use was illegal, but, even when it is in the ‘right’ hands, we have reason to be vigilant about how artificial intelligence is rapidly entering many parts of our lives.
At work, there is the potential for bias and discrimination to be automated. Machine learning relies on large sets of data to detect patterns and make predictions. This typically reflects past human behaviour, which inevitably contains prejudices and assumptions, whether conscious or unconscious.
One example of what could go wrong, reported by Reuters, was an experimental recruiting tool that Amazon decided to scrap when it was found to discriminate against women. Continue reading