The next CAS Inquire lecture of the spring will be hosted on February 25th from 5:30-6:30pm in the Union Auditorium. Drs. Carrie Heitman and Heather Richards-Rissetto will be discussing "Discriminatory Algorithms and Cultural Complexities."
As we contemplate the “Rise of the Machine”, let us pause to more critically consider the black box technologies embedded within our daily human-computer interactions. In recent years there has been a growing awareness of the implicit and explicit biases embedded in the technologies we use. In some cases, image pattern recognition algorithms reveal the racial biases of their developers. In 2018 Google Photos image recognition algorithms, for instance, were classifying dark-skinned faces as “gorillas.” HP computers could identify and track white faces, but not dark skin tones. When analyzing images of Asian faces, Nikon cameras were asking if someone blinked. Algorithmic biases are also at work within our respective social media “feeds”—resulting in our much-maligned like-minded echo chambers. Language translators and speech recognition software often have gender biases. But the political, social, ethical and economic risks associated with algorithmic logic of machine learning are greater still. Take for instance the AI COMPAS algorithm widely used in the US to guide sentencing by predicting the likelihood of a criminal reoffending. In perhaps the most notorious case of AI prejudice, in May 2016 the U.S. news organization ProPublica reported that COMPAS is racially biased. In this presentation, anthropologists Richards-Rissetto and Heitman will talk about the power and peril of computational algorithms—discussing what they are, how they work, what they enable us to do as researchers, and the risks that come with them.
The CAS Inquire program builds around a college-wide series of public lectures centering on a new theme each year.
The lecture series will serve as a touchstone for the college—giving students, staff, and faculty a focal point and shared topic for conversations and further inquiry.