AI maybe just Math. It still can solve social problems
A counter to an MIT Tech Review post
Meredith Broussard, data scientist and author of More Than a Glitch, writes “AI is just math. I don’t think that everything in the world should be governed by math. Computers are really good at solving mathematical issues. But they are not very good at solving social issues, yet they are being applied to social problems.”
Is it? Is it that AI is not good at solving social issues? I do not think so.
I am not a social scientist by any means, but as a key observer of humans, societies, and Artificial Intelligence (AI), this quote got me thinking.
The MIT Technology Review post states, “Her central claim is that using technical tools to address social problems without considering race, gender, and ability can cause immense harm”.
Three points
Nature IS math
AI is maybe just math. But a lot of nature, including humans, works with intense mathematical precision in the microscopic and macroscopic realms. Here is an article from Math Geek Mama that covers it beautifully.
Maths helps us understand humans too.
Social constructs are quantifiable
Race, gender, and ability are quantifiable to very high degrees of accuracy given the right number of features. Given the right context and content, the interaction between quantified entities (humans) is also quantifiable.
The real issue
The real issue here is the lack of data and a history of decisions. Bias creeps in, as a result of a lack of “good enough” data about diversity in race, gender, or ability.
That bias though affects humans too — and is not specific to AI.
Any AI algorithm that aspires to respond to social questions, needs to represent humanity at large — in the variety of underlying data.
To summarise — the problem is not with math, it is with data and conscious/unconscious bias in humans.
