Was a project in collaboration with Manu Luksch & Mukul Patel (Ambient Information Systems) as part of the Public Voices in AI research program that ‘aims to ensure that public voices are front and centre in artificial intelligence research, development and policy’. We set out to understand and help articulate beliefs and concerns about AI held by two groups in Tower Hamlets: clients of Streets of Growth, a charity supporting vulnerable teenagers at risk of diverse harms, and older adult clients of mental health charity MIND.
What makes AI problematic as a technology is its opacity. The spread of surveillance cameras in the UK was visible to all, especially those that might have felt targeted. But how do you know you’ve been sorted by a system that exists across distant data centres, ‘somewhere in the cloud’? How can you understand its outputs when even its designers might not be able to fully explain them? And how can you discuss all of this with a neighbour when they see entirely different newsfeeds? Of course, the impact is greatest on those who are already vulnerable.
– Mukul Patel
‘A day in the life’ exercise to identify all interactions with technology in a typical day