Comment on AI’s Impact on Black Americans

scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• t3rmit3@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Professional sociologists, academics, and literal computer scientists who study AI: Hey we have a huge bias problem, and we haven’t really solved that yet. There will be huge ramifications if people blindly use AI

  Tech executives to the Public: “Wow, that’s really interesting. This is definitely something we need to work on and do better. You’ll be hearing more from us on this soon!” (But no way am I spending any money that should be going to my bonus on woke DEI shit)

  Tech execs to engineers: “…Ship it faster, and cheaper!”

  Engineer 1: “Hey, have we covered all our test bases on this?”

  Engineer 2: (looks around office) “Yep, I think we’ve tested with everyone here!”

  News report: “The product exhibits a clear anti-black bias, and leaked documents show that the product was not tested for it at all.”

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  • cashmaggot@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I mean tbh, if it's tech from San Fran they actually are super about inclusive. At least any devs I've met from there, as it's sort of woven into the cultural tapestry of the West Coast as a whole (which is funny considering it has had some exceptionally racist policies in the past). I think more so people just don't realize what might be a thing needed to run the gamut of diversity because the face of STEM itself is relatively one sided in America. Probably just the face of corporate America as a whole, if we were being honest.

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    • scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      yeah it is, also a west coast engineer, but there’s also nuance. There’s definitely a difference between HR telling you the corporate policies and then there’s going to your VP and telling them their pet product may have ethical ramifications. There’s a lot of rug sweeping if a project is important.

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      • cashmaggot@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Yeah, I talked about that before too somewhere on here. If they tell you to fudge, you fudge because standing up gets you axed.

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• cashmaggot@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Tech for sure has a race/gender/class issue in America. On a global scale, I can't say much and I know that tech is global. I also know that Nigeria has a solid tech hub in Lagos. But also know that education in general in Nigeria is brutally competitive and very situationally based.

  But to be honest, this has long since been an issue with technology. I know it was fluttered all over the net but people have long since known consumer cameras were made with a certain type of complexion in mind. But hilariously the first time I seen AI x racism talked was via Robin Thede (so a skit show) some odd years back. But capitalism gunna cap, and it's crazy that people can't just widen their test range if they're not going to at least offer a seat at the table.

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  • PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’ve been saying for a while now that the singularity isn’t going to be based in an AGI, ot will be minimizing quantum computing not just to a commercial scale, but to an implantable scale, and creating a neural “third hemisphere” implant which allows the user to basically have all the capabilities that human thought excels at over machines calculation, as well as all the capabilities of the reverse.

    If we hit that point before inequality is addressed, it will lead to the classes literally becoming different species from each other, an overlord owning class that has financial access to such expanded mental capacity, and the peasant working classes that are financially shut out of the expanded career potential the implants would provide.

    Not to mention the terroristic horror that could come from the implant not being solidly air gapped from the internet. Might be cool to perfectly calculate an optimal frisby toss, but it’ll be less cool if someone changed the trajectory you’re aiming along to turn the thing into a murder weapon by hitting a rando at just the right angle.

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    • cashmaggot@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Oh for sure, you're most right! I mean we see it replicated over and over and over again in our society in so many spaces how would the ripples not continue onward into cybernetics. Something I often think about is if it's not/hasn't happened to you, you don't even tend to think about it. And by it, I mean being oppressed in some manner pertaining specifically to something you cannot change. They're also cannibalizing the middle class. So in the end you really probably will just have the "global" ruling class and the "indignant" and "ungrateful" others who they must charitably coexist with. But I also think it's like...the concept behind Deus Ex/Snowpiercer (Idk too many SciFi things don't come at me with pitchforks). So like, sci-fi writers got one up on us.

      But I always figure, if you want to remember you've been bought and sold as a whole (no matter your class, ethnic background, or gender as long as you're not the top dog) I always point towards Russell Means Welcome to the Reservation because he proposes that America as a whole is a reservation because just because you think you're "free" doesn't mean you actually are free.

      Eh! The whole thing gets me sad.

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    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Pretty sure the singularity is the climate crisis and they’re doing nothing about it.

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  • jarfil@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    consumer cameras were made with a certain type of complexion in mind

    Not sure if it’s what you’re talking about, but consumer cameras, and most graphics systems, have been using logarithmic encoding (gamma) to fit a larger dynamic range into a reduced data range… which has the effect of reducing de detail level of larger areas of an image, with the idea that the human eye would struggle to see them anyway. It didn’t have anything to do with complexion, but with pushing technology to a minimally acceptable level on a limited budget. HDR cameras with linear encoding, are still quite expensive, way out of the consumer market range, and it doesn’t seem like that’s going to change too soon.

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• NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Computer scientists are notoriously literal.

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