The Academic Life

More Than A Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech

Jun 13, 2024

Dr. Meredith Broussard discusses confronting race, gender, and ability bias in tech. She explores the flaws in AI systems, emphasizes the importance of diverse data training, and advocates for inclusive tech development. The podcast delves into the ethical concerns of facial recognition technology, biases in machine learning models, and the limitations of AI in addressing complex societal issues.

47:14

Episode guests

Meredith Broussard

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Quick takeaways

Algorithms embed racism, sexism, and ableism in tech systems, necessitating accountability.

Biased AI systems must be addressed as significant issues, not mere glitches, to combat inequality.

Deep dives

Understanding Bias in Tech Systems

Meredith Broussard, in 'More than a Glitch,' explores how bias in tech systems reinforces inequality. Algorithms, often perceived as neutral, embed racism, sexism, and ableism. Broussard emphasizes the myth of tech neutrality and advocates for holding algorithms accountable. She highlights the fallibility of human-created programs, which can lead to harmful consequences, stressing the need to root out biased algorithms targeting specific demographics.

Intro

4min

Confronting Bias in Technology

6min

Explaining the Differences Between Glitches, Bugs, and Features in Tech

4min

Techno Chauvinism and Biases in AI and Technology

22min

Tech Biases and Diverse Design Needs

5min

Exploring the Reality and Limitations of AI in Cancer Detection

5min

Today’s book is: More Than A Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech (MIT Press, 2024), by Meredith Broussard. When technology reinforces inequality, it's not just a glitch—it's a signal that we need to redesign our systems to create a more equitable world. The word “glitch” implies an incidental error, as easy to patch up as it is to identify. But what if racism, sexism, and ableism aren't just bugs in mostly functional machinery? What if they're coded into the system itself?

Meredith Broussard demonstrates in More Than a Glitch how neutrality in tech is a myth and why algorithms need to be held accountable. Broussard, a data scientist and one of the few Black female researchers in artificial intelligence, masterfully synthesizes concepts from computer science and sociology. She explores a range of examples: from facial recognition technology trained only to recognize lighter skin tones, to mortgage-approval algorithms that encourage discriminatory lending, to the dangerous feedback loops that arise when medical diagnostic algorithms are trained on insufficiently diverse data. Even when such technologies are designed with good intentions, Broussard shows, fallible humans develop programs that can result in devastating consequences. Broussard argues that the solution isn't to make omnipresent tech more inclusive, but to root out the algorithms that target certain demographics as “other” to begin with. With sweeping implications for fields ranging from jurisprudence to medicine, the ground-breaking insights of More Than a Glitch are essential reading for anyone invested in building a more equitable future.

Our guest is: Meredith Broussard, who is an associate professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University, research director at the NYU Alliance for Public Interest Technology, and the author of several books, including More Than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech, and Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. Her academic research focuses on artificial intelligence in investigative reporting and ethical AI, with a particular interest in using data analysis for social good.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

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