Tech and Racial Bias – The New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “Will Tech Protect My Kids?,” by Bärí A. Williams (Sunday Review, Dec. 3):

As a person of color and a parent, I, too, worry about the implications that racial bias has for me, my family and society.

As a fellow member of the tech community who is working on solutions, I think that it is important to share some of the steps being taken to address these issues.

Tech understands its duty to make sure that we deploy A.I. responsibly and use the technology to advance humanity. For instance, Google launched a new project called People+AI Research Initiative, or PAIR, that strives to advance the research and design of A.I. systems that focuses on its users, including designs that make A.I. more inclusive.

And it’s not just tech giants playing an active role; start-ups are looking at how to create nonbiased ways of finding workers for jobs.

Our industry’s A.I. Policy Principles lay out our promise to mitigating harmful bias. We pledge to ensure the integrity of data at every stage, including rigorous testing for potentially harmful bias before and throughout the deployment of A.I. systems.

Any time you are driving innovation that is transformative, there will be points of tension. We are committed to ensuring that tech is at the center of identifying those points and working to resolve them.

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