Big promises, big consequences: asking critical questions to big data and AI.
To date, my research has explored social media, Big Science, smart cities, social robots, and AI ethics. What’s the common denominator across such a varied range of projects? All of the technologies I study make “big promises” about changing our understanding of the world around us, or the way in which we interact with our world. Caught up in the hype around these more-or-less innovative technologies, it can be easy to lose sight of how they may also reproduce bias, discrimination, social divides and other exclusions. And this is where my research starts. I am interested in the following questions: what uses and users are assumed in the design and development of these technologies? Who is missing from this picture and what are the “big consequences” of this for everyday lives? I develop interdisciplinary collaborations with computer scientists, roboticists, designers and engineers that aim to produce new ways of approaching technological development more attuned to diversity and inclusivity. In this talk, I share two examples from my work to date, together with some reflections on the conditions necessary to conduct such collaborations. Comments and questions are warmly welcome.