Can we make our robots less biased than us?

Adhering to the declaration would ban researchers from working on robots that conduct search and rescue operations, or in the emerging field of “social robotics”. One of Dr. Bethel’s research projects is to develop technology that would use small, human-like robots to interview children who have been abused, sexually assaulted, trafficked or otherwise traumatized. In one of his recent studies, 250 children and teens asked about bullying were often willing to share information with a robot that they would not disclose to an adult.

Having an investigator “drive” a robot into another room could thus lead to less painful and more informative interviews with the surviving children, said Dr Bethel, who is a trained forensic investigator.

“You have to understand the problem space before you can talk about robotics and police work,” she said. “They make a lot of generalizations without a lot of information.”

Dr Crawford is one of the signatories of the open letter “No Justice, No Robots” and The Black in Computing. “And you know, whenever something like that happens, or awareness is raised, especially in the community I work in, I try to make sure I support it,” he said. -he declares.

Dr Jenkins refused to sign the “No Justice” declaration. “I thought it was worth considering,” he said. “But at the end of the day, I thought the bigger issue was, actually, the representation in the room – in the research lab, in the classroom, and in the development team, the executive board. Discussions of ethics should be anchored in this first issue of basic civil rights, he said.

Dr. Howard did not sign either of the two statements. She reiterated her view that biased algorithms are the result, in part, of the asymmetric demographics – white, male, able-bodied – who designs and tests software.

“If outside people who have ethical values ​​are not working with these law enforcement entities, then who is?” she says. “When you say ‘no’ other people will say ‘yes’. It’s not good if there’s no one in the room to say, ‘Uh, I don’t think the robot should kill.’