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Article

30 Apr 2019

Author:
Dawn Duhaney, People of Color in Tech

Commentary: Tech companies should support openness & ethical product development in addition to increasing diversity when combating AI bias

"Diversity Alone Will Not Be The Solution To Bias In AI", 11 April, 2019

Increasing the diversity of the workforce in tech is regularly suggested as a way to mitigating against AI bias... Better diversity in tech is long overdue. However... [w]e can’t expect people of color and gender minorities to bear the weight of being the moral and ethical center for tech companies... The tech industry also needs to be careful of... a scenario where the overall diversity statistics of tech companies improve but people of color and gender minorities [are] not in senior roles and little change is made to non-inclusive working cultures... We need a wider cultural change in the tech industry that supports openness, inclusivity, and ethical product development... Tech companies need to recognize the ethical trade-offs they are making throughout the product development cycle and get better at being open about them... We need to involve product leads, engineers and data scientists in the conversation about tech ethics... Finally, there’s an emerging group of organizations and communities working differently, embracing a culture of openness and beginning to change ways of working in tech... We need to support organizations like these that are doing things differently and push for wider cultural change in tech so we see more inclusive, open and ethical tech development in the future.