Regular AI can mitigate algorithmic racism – 05/16/2023 – Policies and Justice

The impressive technical leaps in artificial intelligence services over the past twenty years have accelerated the sense of wonder about digital technologies. Recognition of objects in images, automatic translation, hypercontextualized ads, semi-automated cars and transport platforms are just a few that preceded the darling of the time: ChatGPT which, representing the great language models, seemed to shake up the already effervescent field of artificial intelligence .

The recent letter from several tech CEOs calling for a six-month pause on AI development has proven to be a speculative play on financial capital and a piece of strategic disinformation. Framing the ethical debate on artificial intelligence as incipient or linked to conscious robots hides the problems of AI today, especially regarding the deepening of inequalities and concentration of economic, political and epistemic power.

We do have a complex and considerably mature debate about the regulation of artificial intelligence in the world, including in Brazil.

Last December, a commission of jurists responsible for subsidizing the preparation of a substitute on artificial intelligence, delivered to the President of the Senate a dense and long report resulting from the debates between the commission’s experts, public hearings and multisectoral contributions.

The report included a substitute draft for the bills previously presented, substantially advancing in the promotion of rights without stifling innovation. However, the text still lacks an anti-racist commitment, perhaps a result of the commission’s composition: none of the 18 invited jurists is a black or indigenous person.

In a seminar held at the Federal Justice Council in April, in Brasília, most of the complex network of multisectoral interests in the matter agreed that it is time to move forward with the procedure.

It became Bill No. 2338/2023, filed by Senator Rodrigo Pacheco, opening the space for the actual legislative debate. A more intense social participation would be beneficial, opening spaces for organizations and specialists to collaborate with suggestions that favor the fight against algorithmic racism and its manifestations, already widely identified by academia and journalism in implementations that include filters for selfies, surveillance technologies and recruitment to access to health and public resources.

If our Statute of Racial Equality establishes the promotion of normative adjustments to improve the fight against ethnic-racial discrimination and ethnic-racial inequalities in all their individual, institutional and structural manifestations, there is still a lot to advance.

Brazil has heavy vulnerabilities in the defense of human rights and unfortunately leads some rates of inequality, racism, gender violence and LGBTQphobia. The reality of violence and inequalities in Brazil cannot be ignored in the construction of mechanisms for social control of technology.

The text proposed by the commission is strongly inspired by the relevant AI Act of the European Union, but fails to disregard that Brazil needs more defense of rights to reach acceptable levels of social well-being at some point.

An example is the approach to facial recognition in the public space, notably its use by the State and the police. Banning or long moratoriums on harmful technologies should be on the list of possibilities for federal regulation.

Global and national campaigns such as Ban Biometric Surveillance and TireMeuRostodaSuaMira, as well as the #SaidaMinhaCara protocol, are examples that bring together hundreds of civil society organizations that ask for a ban on the use of distance biometric surveillance, such as facial recognition. The Brazilian text, however, established loose rules for its use, promoting mass incarceration and hypersurveillance in a country that has had more years of dictatorial than democratic regimes.

The production of diverse, open and multidisciplinary databases and ethical systems can be a pillar of Brazilian multicultural talent and differentiate the country as a global leader in the subject. To achieve this, we can also look at experiences and paths beyond the Europe and USA axis.

For example, the “Windhoek Declaration of Southern African Countries on Artificial Intelligence” recommends promoting “decolonization in the design and application of AI technologies, including decolonizing education at all levels, developing Africa-centered curricula and engaging communities to co-design ethical and inclusive applications, taking into account the cultural heritage and knowledge systems of indigenous peoples”.

Brazil has human, historical and cultural wealth to lead the production of ethical digital technologies and combat knowledge biases in a multipolar world.

Finally, the risk grading of AI implementations, in particular the concepts of high risk and unacceptable risk, must consider the intersectional disparities known in Brazil. To this end, the design of a national authority on AI should include civil society organizations and researchers on intersectional oppressions, such as institutional networks promoting racial equality.

Revealing the denial of racism in all its manifestations, including the algorithmic one, is a mission that will pave the way for our future.

Editor Michael França requests that each participant in the space “Politics and Justice” of the Sheet suggest a song to the readers. In this text, the one chosen by Tarcizio Silva was “Strange Arithmetic”, by The Coup.

PRESENT LINK: Did you like this text? Subscriber can release five free hits of any link per day. Just click the blue F below.