Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Will Artificial Intelligence Target Women?


Think of a robotic Trump - racist, sexist, misogynistic. Some think those are the attributes we can expect to seep into artificial intelligence. The age of automation is not going to be kind to women.


Women are projected to take the biggest hits to jobs in the near future, according to a World Economic Forum (WEF) report predicting that 5.1 million positions worldwide will be lost by 2020. “Developments in previously disjointed fields such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, robotics, nanotechnology, 3D printing and genetics and biotechnology are all building on and amplifying one another,” the WEF report states. “Smart systems — homes, factories, farms, grids or entire cities — will help tackle problems ranging from supply chain management to climate change.” These technological changes will create new kinds of jobs while displacing others. And women will lose roles in workforces where they make up high percentages — think office and administrative jobs — and in sectors where there are already gender imbalances, such as architecture, engineering, computers, math, and manufacturing. Men will see nearly 4 million job losses and 1.4 million gains (approximately one new job created for every three lost). In comparison, women will face 3 million job losses and only 0.55 million gains (more than five jobs lost for every one gained).

Forecasts like one from the consultancy McKinsey & Co. suggest that women’s weakening position will only be exacerbated by automation in jobs often held by women, such as bookkeepers, clerks, accountants, sales and customer service, and data input. The WEF report predicts that persistent gender gaps in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields over the next 15 years would also diminish women’s professional presence.

The article looks at an AI bot named Tay that Microsoft launched on the internet, a cyber millennial female. The pitch was that "The more you talk, the smarter Tay gets!" Enter the Trolls.

Tay’s designers built her to be a creature of the web, reliant on artificial intelligence (AI) to learn and engage in human conversations and get better at it by interacting with people over social media. As the day went on, Tay gained followers. She also quickly fell prey to Twitter users targeting her vulnerabilities. For those internet antagonists looking to manipulate Tay, it didn’t take much effort; they engaged the bot in ugly conversations, tricking the technology into mimicking their racist and sexist behavior. Within a few hours, Tay had endorsed Adolf Hitler and referred to U.S. President Barack Obama as “the monkey.” She sex-chatted with one user, tweeting, “DADDY I’M SUCH A BAD NAUGHTY ROBOT.”

By early evening, she was firing off sexist tweets:

“gamergate is good and women are inferior”

“Zoe Quinn is a Stupid Whore.”

“I fucking hate feminists and they should all die and burn in hell.”

...

Artificial intelligence may soon look and sound far more sophisticated than Tay — machines are expected to become as smart as people — and become dangerously more sexist as biases seep into programs, algorithms, and designs. If thoughtful and careful changes to these technologies don’t begin now — and under the equal guidance of women — artificial intelligence will proliferate under man’s most base cultural norms. The current trends in machine learning augment historical misperceptions of women (meek, mild, in need of protection). Unchecked, they will regurgitate the worst female stereotypes. Sexism will become even more infused within societies as they increasingly — and willingly — rely on advanced technology.

12 comments:

Toby said...

Fascinating. It will take time to digest this one. Thanks.

Over the holidays I was at a group function where gifts were available for the kids. Among the toys were a robot bunny and puppy. Both were sound stimulated; one had a recorder. When the kids put the toys down I set them on the floor facing each other and snapped my fingers. We watched them "talk" and gesture to each other for about five minutes. These are just toys but they already have an ability to function to a limited extent without us.

At what point will robots decide that humans are the problem and delete us? Will some massive military computer decide that humans can't make the necessary decision fast enough and launch the nukes?

Gyor said...

Silly Luddite fear mongering.

And automation has been killing off jobs in male dominated for decades, it has wiped out even more manufacturing in the West then poorly designed free trade agreements.

So nows it's soon to be women's turn, OMG now it matters. I'm tired of all the goofy people who have watched the terminator too many times freaking out that the machines are going to rise up.

And yes automation and other tech has eliminated a lot of jobs, but this was foresee able, a massive chunk of the labour market is redundant, maybe even the majority eventually, which is why we need new economic systems, the economic structures of capitalism and socialism were designed for the industrialization era, not the information era, we looking at an Automation/AI, Energy, Medicine, Materials revolution like nothing else in history (people think they can compare it to past tech revolutions, they are wrong), we need new ideologies and economic system for the information age to take advantage of it's opportunities and protect against people being left behind.

Gyor said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
The Mound of Sound said...

Recall, Toby, that it was Stephen Hawking who has warned that AI/robotics will lead to the end of human civilization. Now I don't pretend to know remotely as much as that fellow does so I'll defer to his judgment which seems somewhat widely shared. I stand to be corrected but I think Elon Musk shares Hawking's view.

The Mound of Sound said...

Gyor, I took the liberty of deleting your duplicate comment.

Addressing your remarks, I assume you lump people like Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk among your "goofy people" who see dire things from AI. Do you really consider your judgment superior to theirs?

I agree that we are in urgent need of new economic, social and political paradigms to respond to the changes underway and yet we cannot find leaders capable of even getting us out of the neoliberal rut that only seems to deepen. Where are we to find electable individuals who can champion that essential vision? We can't even get past our fossil fuel addiction.

The Mound of Sound said...

One other point. If AI systems do decide to take us down they won't have to rise up and launch nukes. We've become mortally dependent on systems and infrastructure that a good many of us would succumb to their disruption. Water that doesn't flow from taps, toilets that don't flush, satellites that can no longer maintain our essential communications, power grids that fail. I think we're much more fragile than we imagine.

Gyor said...

Even brilliant people can say stupid things. Ben Carson is an excellent example, he is a literally a brilliant brain surgeon, yet look at the dumb stuff he says.

So yes as a brilliant Stephen Hawking is, even he can have a brain fart.

Emerging technologies will force the issue of how the political change will happen, like technology often helps shape politics and policy. As
to who will lead this, I don't know, the technology hasn't reached the critical mass yet to force the issue.

Gyor said...

Even brilliant people can say stupid things. Ben Carson is an excellent example, he is a literally a brilliant brain surgeon, yet look at the dumb stuff he says.

So yes as a brilliant Stephen Hawking is, even he can have a brain fart.

Emerging technologies will force the issue of how the political change will happen, like technology often helps shape politics and policy. As
to who will lead this, I don't know, the technology hasn't reached the critical mass yet to force the issue.

Northern PoV said...

The threat of technology getting out of hand (against all genders!!) doesn't have to wait until we have sentient robots.

On oldie-but-goldie classic read: Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us

https://www.wired.com/2000/04/joy-2/

Anonymous said...


Women will be targeted...why not? They always are especially when it has anything to do with brains or sex. The world needs vigilante drones that seek sexual predators out.

Anonymous said...

Folks arbitrarily lump together AI and robots, those of self-replicating variety. One has little to do with another. AI will arrive much, much sooner than robots, and my bet is that those robots will be of biological not mechanical variety.
A..non

Purple library guy said...

"Men will see nearly 4 million job losses and 1.4 million gains (approximately one new job created for every three lost). In comparison, women will face 3 million job losses and only 0.55 million gains (more than five jobs lost for every one gained)."
Well, but in terms of raw numbers it's almost exactly the same impact: Net loss of about 2.5 million jobs. So I'm not sure the claim that the impact will be massively greater on women stands up.