Tech's diversity crisis is baking bias into AI systems
AI needs her, experts and observers say.
Built-in viewpoints and bias, unintentionally imbued by its creators, can make the fast-growing digital tool risky as it is used to make significant decisions in areas such as hiring processes, health care, finance and law enforcement, they warn.
"I'm interested in a career in AI because I want to ensure that marginalized communities are protected from and informed on the dangers and risks of AI and also understand how they can benefit from it," said De Los Santos, a first-generation U.S. college student.
"This unfairness and prejudice that exists in society is being replicated in the AI brought into very high stakes scenarios and environment, and it's being trusted, without more critical thinking."
Women represent 26% of the AI workforce, according to a UNESCO report, and men hold 80% of tenured faculty positions at university AI departments globally.
Blacks and Hispanics also are underrepresented in the AI workforce, a 2022 census data analysis by Georgetown University showed.
Among AI technical occupations, Hispanics held about 9% of jobs, compared with holding more than 18% of U.S. jobs overall, it said. Black workers held about 8% of the technical AI jobs, compared with holding nearly 12% of U.S. jobs overall, it said.
AI bias
De Los Santos will soon begin a PhD program in human computer interaction at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Bias has unintentionally seeped into some AI systems as software engineers, for example, who are creating problem-solving techniques integrate their own perspectives and often-limited data sets. |
reuters
She said she wants to learn not only how to educate marginalized communities on AI technology but to understand privacy issues and AI bias, also called algorithm or machine learning bias, that produces results that reflect and perpetuate societal biases.
Bias has unintentionally seeped into some AI systems as software engineers, for example, who are creating problem-solving techniques integrate their own perspectives and often-limited data sets.
Amazon scrapped an AI recruiting tool when it found it was selecting resumes favoring men over women. The system had been trained to vet applicants by observing patterns in resumes submitted to the company over a 10-year period.
Most came from men, a reflection of a preponderance of men across the industry, and the system in effect taught itself that male candidates were preferable.
"When people from a broader range of life experiences, identities and backgrounds help shape AI, they're more likely to identify different needs, ask different questions and apply AI in new ways," said Tess Posner, founding CEO of AI4ALL, a non-profit working to develop an inclusive pipeline of AI professionals.
"Inclusion makes the solutions created by AI more relevant to more people," said Posner.
Promoting diversity
AI4ALL counts De Los Santos as one of the 7,500 students it has helped navigate the barriers to getting a job in AI since 2015.
By targeting historically underrepresented groups, the nonprofit aims to diversify the AI workforce.
AI engineer jobs are one of the fastest growing positions globally and the fastest growing overall in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, according to LinkedIn.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order on AI at the White House in January. |
reuters
Posner said promoting diversity means starting early in education by expanding access to computer science classes for children.
About 60% of public high schools offer such classes with Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans less likely to have access.
Ensuring that students from underrepresented groups know about AI as a potential career, creating internships and aligning them with mentors is critical, she said.
Efforts to make AI more representative of American society are colliding with U.S. President Donald Trump's backlash against Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government, higher education and corporate levels.
DEI offices and programs in the U.S. government have been terminated and federal contractors banned from using affirmative action in hiring. Companies from Goldman Sachs to PepsiCo have halted or cut back diversity programs.
Safiya Noble, a professor at the University of California Los Angeles and founder of the Center on Resilience & Digital Justice, said she worries the government's attack on DEI will undermine efforts to create opportunities in AI for marginalized groups.
"One of the ways to repress any type of progress on civil rights is to make the allegation that tech and social media companies have been too available to the messages of civil rights and human rights," said Noble.
"You see the evidence with their backlash against movements like Blacks Lives Matter and allegations of anti-conservative bias," she said.
Globally, from 2021 to 2024, UNESCO says the number of women working in AI increased by just 4%.
While progress may be slow, Posner said she is optimistic.
"There's been a lot of commitment to these values of inclusion,' she said.
"I don't think that's changed, even if as a society, we are wrestling with what inclusion really means and how to do that across the board."
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Japan Times
21 hours ago
- Japan Times
Tech's diversity crisis is baking bias into AI systems
As an Afro-Latina woman with degrees in computer and electrical engineering, Maya De Los Santos hopes to buck a trend by forging a career in AI, a field dominated by white men. AI needs her, experts and observers say. Built-in viewpoints and bias, unintentionally imbued by its creators, can make the fast-growing digital tool risky as it is used to make significant decisions in areas such as hiring processes, health care, finance and law enforcement, they warn. "I'm interested in a career in AI because I want to ensure that marginalized communities are protected from and informed on the dangers and risks of AI and also understand how they can benefit from it," said De Los Santos, a first-generation U.S. college student. "This unfairness and prejudice that exists in society is being replicated in the AI brought into very high stakes scenarios and environment, and it's being trusted, without more critical thinking." Women represent 26% of the AI workforce, according to a UNESCO report, and men hold 80% of tenured faculty positions at university AI departments globally. Blacks and Hispanics also are underrepresented in the AI workforce, a 2022 census data analysis by Georgetown University showed. Among AI technical occupations, Hispanics held about 9% of jobs, compared with holding more than 18% of U.S. jobs overall, it said. Black workers held about 8% of the technical AI jobs, compared with holding nearly 12% of U.S. jobs overall, it said. AI bias De Los Santos will soon begin a PhD program in human computer interaction at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Bias has unintentionally seeped into some AI systems as software engineers, for example, who are creating problem-solving techniques integrate their own perspectives and often-limited data sets. | reuters She said she wants to learn not only how to educate marginalized communities on AI technology but to understand privacy issues and AI bias, also called algorithm or machine learning bias, that produces results that reflect and perpetuate societal biases. Bias has unintentionally seeped into some AI systems as software engineers, for example, who are creating problem-solving techniques integrate their own perspectives and often-limited data sets. Amazon scrapped an AI recruiting tool when it found it was selecting resumes favoring men over women. The system had been trained to vet applicants by observing patterns in resumes submitted to the company over a 10-year period. Most came from men, a reflection of a preponderance of men across the industry, and the system in effect taught itself that male candidates were preferable. "When people from a broader range of life experiences, identities and backgrounds help shape AI, they're more likely to identify different needs, ask different questions and apply AI in new ways," said Tess Posner, founding CEO of AI4ALL, a non-profit working to develop an inclusive pipeline of AI professionals. "Inclusion makes the solutions created by AI more relevant to more people," said Posner. Promoting diversity AI4ALL counts De Los Santos as one of the 7,500 students it has helped navigate the barriers to getting a job in AI since 2015. By targeting historically underrepresented groups, the nonprofit aims to diversify the AI workforce. AI engineer jobs are one of the fastest growing positions globally and the fastest growing overall in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, according to LinkedIn. U.S. President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order on AI at the White House in January. | reuters Posner said promoting diversity means starting early in education by expanding access to computer science classes for children. About 60% of public high schools offer such classes with Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans less likely to have access. Ensuring that students from underrepresented groups know about AI as a potential career, creating internships and aligning them with mentors is critical, she said. Efforts to make AI more representative of American society are colliding with U.S. President Donald Trump's backlash against Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government, higher education and corporate levels. DEI offices and programs in the U.S. government have been terminated and federal contractors banned from using affirmative action in hiring. Companies from Goldman Sachs to PepsiCo have halted or cut back diversity programs. Safiya Noble, a professor at the University of California Los Angeles and founder of the Center on Resilience & Digital Justice, said she worries the government's attack on DEI will undermine efforts to create opportunities in AI for marginalized groups. "One of the ways to repress any type of progress on civil rights is to make the allegation that tech and social media companies have been too available to the messages of civil rights and human rights," said Noble. "You see the evidence with their backlash against movements like Blacks Lives Matter and allegations of anti-conservative bias," she said. Globally, from 2021 to 2024, UNESCO says the number of women working in AI increased by just 4%. While progress may be slow, Posner said she is optimistic. "There's been a lot of commitment to these values of inclusion,' she said. "I don't think that's changed, even if as a society, we are wrestling with what inclusion really means and how to do that across the board."
Japan Times
a day ago
- Japan Times
‘Our ultimate goal is to save every single Japanese video game'
Don't let the rows of boxes on store shelves deceive you — video games are now a digital commodity. In 2024, global sales for video games comprised 95.4% digital downloads, good for $175.8 billion in revenue versus just $8.5 billion for physical releases. For consoles, like Sony's PlayStation 5 and Nintendo's Switch 2, CDs and game cartridges fared a bit better at about 16% of total sales, but on PC, just 1% of all games purchased last year were physical media. Increasingly, those products in the stores may not even contain the game itself. In May, Doom: The Dark Ages, the latest entry in the popular shooter series, shipped with only a fraction of the game's full data on physical discs, with players needing to download 85 gigabytes of data when first running it. And in December, the disc for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle included just 20 out of a hefty 120GB. With the release of the Switch 2, Nintendo has thrown its weight behind digital-first distribution: The console's ' Game-Key Cards ' merely include digital access codes to download full titles. And subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus are pushing players toward models akin to Netflix or Spotify, with catalogs of games available for a monthly fee, skirting ownership altogether. Given that Steam (the largest PC digital games storefront) announced last year that consumers only acquire a license instead of outright purchasing ownership rights to games via its marketplace, games as a whole are leaving behind a past built on the legacy of physical media. The Games Preservation Society largely deals with archiving and digitizing floppy disks and casettes issued for Japan's early personal computers of the 1980s and '90s. | GAME PRESERVATION SOCIETY This relentless march toward digitalization is raising concerns about an often neglected problem: game preservation. Damian Rogers, 42, is international relations lead at the Game Preservation Society (GPS), a registered nonprofit working to save the data and materials behind Japan's retro games for future generations of researchers and players. 'We believe video games are more than just toys,' says Rogers. 'They are just as culturally relevant as movies, books and works of art. We want to preserve them not just as an aspect of Japanese culture but of human culture.' The organization is headquartered in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward and has several branches across the country. Though its roots stretch back to the early 2000s, when individual collectors in Japan began coordinating preservation efforts, GPS became an NPO in 2011. After 15-plus years, its task grows more monumental with each passing day. 'Our ultimate goal is to find, archive and save every single Japanese video game,' Rogers says. 'Such a massive undertaking must be approached logically, so we focus first on the games that are most at risk of completely disappearing from the world.' Damian Rogers, international relations lead at the Game Preservation Society, says video games are just as "culturally relevant as movies, books and works of art." | COURTESY OF DAMIAN ROGERS These are the games on floppy disks from the late 1970s and into the '90s, the vast majority of which were never released outside of Japan. They provide insight into the cultural and entertainment landscape at the time, including 1985's Karuizawa Yukai Annai (The Karuizawa Kidnapping Files), a text-based mystery game with both erotic elements and gameplay mechanics that would inspire later RPG classics, and a mint-condition floppy disk of 1982's Galactic Wars, the very first title released by iconic developer Nihon Falcom. GPS' current archival work focuses on digital migration from this fragile media to modern backups, along with scans of the materials included with the games, all while preserving the original media in a climate-controlled location. 'Our baseline for such backups is that if the last copy of a certain game were to disappear from the world entirely, we have the data and materials to perfectly re-create it,' Rogers says. All work is done with museum-grade tools and protocols, which is an expensive undertaking. Getting the necessary funding has always been a challenge for the organization, but this year it came close to game over. Back in spring, it became clear that the project would be out of cash by the end of summer. Rogers says this situation stemmed from a gap in communication with those outside Japan. The nature of retro games being tied to archaic technology means a failure to digitize titles leaves them at the mercy of the extinction of their necessary media. | GAME PRESERVATION SOCIETY To Joseph Redon, head of the Game Preservation Society, "preservation is not something that is ever done." | GAME PRESERVATION SOCIETY 'Our Japanese supporters are happy with occasional updates on the work we do via newsletter. But on the international stage, services like Patreon have become the norm, where people can directly support projects while receiving unique benefits in return. So our traditional system of joining as a member and paying annual dues seems antiquated outside Japan, which makes it difficult to obtain new supporters.' He also blames a dearth of English-speaking staff for the lack of activity on the organization's social media channels, which in turn gives the impression that GPS is 'dead.' To counter this, GPS President Joseph Redon sat for an interview — a 'sort of Hail Mary' — with the retro gaming website Time Extension. 'Preservation is not something that is ever done — it is a never-ending process,' Redon, 50, tells The Japan Times of the equally eternal struggle for funding. 'Some steps are done only once, such as acquisition of the item and migration to a digital backup, but after that comes long-term conservation and eventually public access in the form of exhibitions and as a library.' The result of a single outlet's coverage? GPS' ledgers were sent immediately back in the black. To Joseph Redon, head of the Game Preservation Society, "preservation is not something that is ever done." | GAME PRESERVATION SOCIETY 'The response was staggering,' says Rogers. 'We have enough new memberships to continue through the next year and are still responding to messages offering assistance. We set up an anonymous donation page for those who wish to donate without having to join as a member, which was also quite successful.' GPS is now working to expand its online and international presence. Rogers points out that while its core mission is to preserve games, the group also wants to increase awareness about Japanese gaming culture and history — especially those games and creators who are not well-known overseas. As an example, he points to GPS-produced documentaries on lesser-known Japanese developers Yuichi Toyama (a pioneer of real-time strategy games) and Rika Suzuki (one of Japan's first mystery game devs), both available on the organization's YouTube channel . 'I think this will be the biggest shift for the organization going forward — a move towards a larger staff focused on more content creation to captivate and educate the public about Japanese gaming history and why preservation is so important,' he says. That doesn't mean GPS will slow down its archival work. Instead, it will continue to focus on the games and data that are most at risk: those for Japanese PCs. 'We have around 25,000 games on floppy disks and cassettes in our Tokyo archive, which is quite the backlog to work through. We continue to research new ways of data migration, such as the best way to preserve cassette tape-based data and data from optical media such as LaserDiscs,' says Rogers. Much of the work at the Games Preservation Society is concerned with developing and perfecting technologies to turn obsolete technologies into works that can be enjoyed in perpetuity. | GAME PRESERVATION SOCIETY This means any expansion into more modern platforms is unlikely in the short term. When asked about the current situation of the decline of physical media in games, digital ownership and preservation, Rogers remains neutral, explaining that he doesn't personally play modern games, with 2000's PlayStation 2 being the newest console he owns. But how about GPS as a whole? 'The organization does not have an official stance on the topic, though I'm sure all members would agree that physical media is important for preservation. The situation with modern games is outside our current scope as we work to preserve games that are most at risk of being lost — those from 30 or 40 years ago that aren't being remastered and re-released, whose rights holder status is foggy or are stored on fragile magnetic media .' However, GPS has faced issues with digital-only games. In 2021, mobile phone operator NTT Docomo shut down its i-mode store, ending distribution of hundreds of games for the gara-kei feature phones of the 2000s. The vast majority of these games weren't released on any other hardware, including titles from popular series like Sonic the Hedgehog and Final Fantasy. 'GPS made a last-ditch effort to download as many of these games as we could in the last days of the service,' Rogers explains, 'but even at that point, i-mode was well past its prime and many storefronts had long since closed. Nowadays, some people hunt down these old phones and hope to find classic games still stored within, but it's a gamble.' Rogers sees it as an instructive example of an ever-digitalizing world — and one that enthusiasts of modern games shouldn't soon forget. 'This is the issue we will be facing in the future as there are more and more digital-only releases: When the service is gone, so are the games.'
SoraNews24
2 days ago
- SoraNews24
Japanese government urging citizens to use generative AI more
Government would be happy if you at least tried generating a mildly bawdy limerick. It's certainly hard to imagine life before generative AI came out. Without it, I never would have known what my microwave looked like if it were in a Studio Ghibli movie, or felt the lingering dread that anything I read or saw online is neither authentic human expression nor correct. And yet, despite these revolutionary changes to society, in its annual Communications White Paper Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications says that gen-AI is being underused in Japan compared to the rest of the world. According to the white paper, only 26.7 percent of people in Japan have ever used generative AI. While that nearly tripled last year's 9.1 percent usage rate, it's still far below other countries' rates, such as 81.2 in China, 68.8 in the USA, and 59.2 in Germany. One might be quick to assume Japan's aging population is to blame, but even when focusing solely on people in their 20s, the rate is still only 44.7 percent, and usage by business is only slightly higher at 49.7. Also interesting to note is that AI usage by people in their 30s in Japan is slightly lower than by people in their 40s, with 23.8 and 29.6 percent respectively. ▼ Feline usage, however, remains abysmally low. The white paper concludes that 'Japan is lagging behind AI-advanced countries of the world in terms of technology, industry, and applications, and further promotion of AI usage is needed in daily life.' Online comments from trending-news Internet portal Hachima Kiko didn't disagree, but felt that certain aspects of Japanese society may need changing first. 'I don't do anything like AI illustrations, but it's good for expanding on searches and proofreading.' 'I'm not surprised. We're struggling to get people to use cashless payment systems.' 'We should start by replacing everyone on TV with generated characters to end all the harassment and abuse there.' 'Using AI in game rendering can greatly reduce memory usage. I wonder if Japanese game makers are looking into it properly.' 'Japan needs to stop using floppy disks and fax machines first.' 'Maybe we just prefer the warmth of humanity.' 'That many people are using it in China?!' 'I think if there were a domestically produced AI, more people would get into it.' 'It's not important how widely it's used, but if it's being used properly.' 'In Japan, people who have used it to make money were arrested, and people who used it online were harassed.' In fairness, the people who were arrested were using AI to make money in illegal ways, so I don't think that's a valid argument that Japan has a stifling environment. If anything, it shows there are AI entrepreneurs here trying to make things happen. People just need to find more legitimate applications of it. That being said, I've recently had to deal with a few AI customer service bots from other countries and wasn't really blown away by their effectiveness. Maybe Japan can stand to be a little sluggish on AI adoption until it starts working a little more smoothly. Source: Communications White Paper, FNN Online Prime, Hachima Kiko Featured image: Pakutaso Insert image: Pakutaso ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
