Join us online on Tuesday, April 14 for a free webinar with Douglas Hague, executive director of the School of Data Science at the University of North Carolina Charlotte.
To view the recording of this webinar, please visit the SDM YouTube page.
The slides for this webinar are now available for download – click here.
About the talk: “As the field of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science has evolved in recent years, there is a focus on bias in the data and model development process. Researchers are working to define it and how to best eliminate, or minimize the impact of potential biases. While this research includes improving data collection and sampling methods, ensuring evaluation methods are appropriate, and selecting appropriate model parameters and thresholds to produce a better outcome, these AI models sit within a larger production system. Understanding this larger system is critical to ensuring the outcomes and results meet the expectations of the model developers as wells as the system and society that they operate in.
Assuming we develop methods to identify and account for biases in our data and model development system, there is still a high probability of having small disparate outcomes for various subgroups. Should we still deploy AI into the system? Should we disclose this to those impacted? What are the trades that are acceptable and who gets to make that decision? As one examines specific cases to make these decisions, one often quickly arrives at a discussion of the ethics and moral duties. What are the responsibilities of the model developer, the entity deploying the model, and those using or being impacted by the decisions? Cultures and societies around the globe will answer these questions differently. Are there additional responsibilities for AI developers that launch models into these diverse societies? These are all questions that will be explored… without the certainty of finding definite answers.
About the speaker: Douglas Hague is the executive director of UNC Charlotte’s School of Data Science. He has more than 20 years of experience as an executive advisor to leaders in health care, manufacturing, financial services, and the service industry. In 2018, he was named by Corinium Global Intelligence as one of the Top 50 Data and Analytics Professionals in the United States and Canada. Hague is an alumnus of the System Design and Management program and holds a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering and a master’s degree in metals science and engineering from Pennsylvania State University.
About the series: Sponsored by the System Design & Management (SDM) program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the MIT SDM Systems Thinking Webinar Series features research conducted by SDM faculty, alumni, students, and industry partners. The series is designed to disseminate information on how to employ systems thinking to address engineering, management, and socio-political components of complex challenges.
