In AI We Trust? AI Literacy Series Ep. 3: danah boyd on Thinking Critically about the Systems That Shape Us
Feb 27, 2025
In this engaging conversation, danah boyd, a Partner Researcher at Microsoft and founder of Data & Society Research Institute, dives into the complexities of AI and its impact on society. She challenges easy narratives about AI, urging us to question who designs these systems and their implications for education and power dynamics. The discussion addresses critical themes like privacy concerns, biases in AI, and the need for inclusive technology development. Boyd also highlights the importance of AI literacy for parents and educators to navigate this rapidly evolving landscape.
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Social Behavior Drives Tech Problems
- danah boyd moved from building systems to studying people to see how technology reshapes social life.
- She traced privacy, algorithm manipulation, and social media harms back to real human behaviors and power dynamics.
Tech Mirrors And Magnifies Inequity
- Technology mirrors and magnifies existing social inequities because systems train on biased data and social behavior.
- That socio-technical entanglement creates proxies and feedback loops that produce harmful outcomes at scale.
Search Ads Revealed Racial Feedback Loops
- Latanya Sweeney discovered ads showing 'arrest' results for Black-associated names when searching her own name.
- The outcome revealed a feedback loop where public click behavior produced racially disparate ad results.
