Inclusive artificial intelligence
Fontys is engaged in a broad organisation with the new technology. As a knowledge institute, Fontys is engaged in applied research on AI from various disciplines. On behalf of the Board of Governors, Houterman is therefore pleased to receive the book. Houterman: "Fontys wants to contribute to a sustainable, inclusive and vital society. That's why we think it's important to work together with experts from ICT and mathematics to sport and care. This transformative technology affects everyone's field of expertise. This makes AI a complex challenge that we must tackle together. Erdinç Saçan shows the importance of this multidisciplinary approach in his book; 40 experts with a diversity of backgrounds are interviewed and each offers new insights. Moreover, he gives both professionals and interested readers a grip on a complex social change.
Letter from the tax office
We all feel the direct impact of AI, if not in the daily dose of advertising that algorithms serve us, then in techniques that make our lives easier. For Erdinç Saçan, it was a letter from the tax authorities to his mother that inspired him to write this book: "My mother received a letter stating that she was suspected of fraud in the benefits affair. I wondered how, as a 75-year-old, she had ended up on that list. How had the algorithm arrived at this choice?" To understand this better, Saçan decided to write to a number of experts: "By asking several experts you get new and diverse perspectives, which is also what you read back in the book. It helps to form a more complete picture of what AI does to us. The diversity of interviewees is enormous, it really touches everyone."
People Make AI
There are a number of conclusions that Saçan draws after the many interviews he did about AI. The most important is perhaps the human side of AI: "As humans, we act consciously or unconsciously from preferences or biases. Therefore, we need to think carefully about the design of AI, and the type of data we introduce. There are enough stories about systems with a bias on skin colour, origin or gender. People make AI, and you want to involve as diverse a group as possible in its development. That's exactly what we do at Fontys."
Fontys also recently launched the AI knowledge centre, in which various lectorates and institutes work together on research and application of the technology. The book 'Inclusive Artificial Intelligence' can be downloaded for free here as EPUB or PDF.
