The Future of AI and Human Experience

Dr Christina J. Colclough was interviewed by LG and Element AI on the future of digital technologies, the ethics of AI and the future(s) of work. See the interview with her here:

In the interview, Christina offers her opinions on why the human-centric design of artificial intelligence is crucial if we are to avoid an almost feudal future where power is concentrated in the hands of a very companies at the expense of democracy. She mentions that if we continue down the current path of an unfettered digitalisation, workers and consumers will become objects - puppets on a string - judged and manipulated.

She is asked whether she is optimistic or pessimistic about the digital future and answers that the governance of technologies is crucial for building trust in digital systems and in ensuring they serve people and planet before all else. Christina presents her co-governance model for algorithmic systems and explains how it will hold developers and those deploying digital technology responsible and transparent. It crucially includes the voice of workers so management and labour together can evaluate, adjust and where necessary reject systems that have adverse outcomes or recommendations.

Workers Rights

When asked whether AI can serve to make workplaces more equitable, Christina responds that it is the wrong question to ask, a dangerous one even. She warns that the question implies that AI has a free will and that we mustn't naturalise that notion. She asserts that technology can be used for good, but to make it good we must - again - govern it. She asserts that technology knows no boundaries why we must talk, discuss, form and shape them so they serve the best of our interests. Union busting has no place in the digital economy.

Data cooperatives

Christina wraps up the interview talking about data cooperatives, or what she calls worker data collectives - and the benefits of collectivising data access and control over the current individualised notions of data rights we know today. Christina defines the governance structure of the worker data collective, the need for defining redlines and its purposes.

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As part of the AIX Exchange, the following people were also interviewed. See all videos in the series here

• Yoshua Bengio, Scientific Director of Mila and recent Turing Award winner

• Rodney Brooks, robotics entrepreneur who founded iRobot Corp., inventor of the Roomba robot vacuum

• David Foster, Head of Lyft Transit, Bikes and Scooters

• Dr. Yuko Harayama, who helped develop Japan’s Society 5.0 roadmap as Executive Member of Japan’s Council for Science, Technology and Innovation

• Charles Lee Isbell Jr., Dean of Computing at Georgia Tech

• Helena Leurent, Director General of global consumer rights group, Consumers International

• Bo Peng, Portfolio Director at renowned design agency IDEO

• Jeff Poggi, Co-CEO of the McIntosh Group

• Sri Shivananda, SVP and CTO at PayPal

• Dr. Max Welling, VP Technologies at Qualcomm Netherlands and research chair in Machine Learning, University of Amsterdam

• Alex Zafiroglu, Deputy Director at the 3A Institute (3Ai, Australian National University)

Get the report

The report discusses with these 12 world-leading experts in AI the themes of Ethics, Transparency, Public Perception, User Experience, Context, and Relationships. Find the report here