Design

The Ghost Workers Behind the Tech Industry, feat. Mary Gray

June 3, 2020 — Leave a comment
“We, as consumers, should be holding technology companies that build services and products . . . to the same expectations that we hold scientists, so that [people] are given the opportunity to consent and say no.” – Mary Gray, co-author of Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass

Overview:

In this episode, Mary Gray, Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and co-author of Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass, discusses the work of the often invisible contract employees who bring an essential human element to tech and how the COVID-19 pandemic is bringing their undeniable value to light.

In this episode you will learn:

  • How contract workers are essential in aiding AIs and search engines
  • Examples of a ghost work in everyday technology
  • How the tech industry often devalues contract employees
  • What data labeling is
  • What a ghost worker’s daily schedule looks like
  • How the growing telehealth industry is a prime example of under-appreciated, yet essential contract work
  • The three elements that undermine job happiness
  • How business are benefiting from contract workers
  • The growing challenges of moving towards more contract-driven business
  • Why we should mind the gap rather than close the gap
  • How the pandemic is demonstrating the value of contract and ghost work
  • What are the limits of tech and where does human creativity and spontaneity become irreplaceable

Links and mentions:

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Kaveh Azartash – Voice Recognition for Kids

November 6, 2019 — Leave a comment
“We had a really interesting journey coming in from a kids’ language learning background. Understanding the real sound spectrum of different languages, we built a sophisticated sound map.” – Kaveh Azartash, Founder of KidSense.ai

Kaveh Azartash holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from University of California, Irvine with a focus on Vision Science. Kaveh’s career has been focused on innovating software applications in the neuroscience and now artificial intelligence domain. He co-founded KidSense.ai in 2015 after realizing children are unable to effectively communicate with the technology around them through voice.

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In this episode you will learn:

  • The story of how KidSense.ai was started
  • Kaveh’s professional and academic background
  • The key components of voice recognition software for kids
  • How AIs can recognize changes in kids’ speech patterns over time
  • How KidSense.ai’s model can be applied to other challenges in voice recognition, like speech impediments or non-native English speakers
  • How KidSense.ai maintains privacy and data security
  • The data collection process required to develop complex AI models that mature overtime
  • Both the acoustic and language components that are behind a voice recognition software
  • Why these new AI technologies are considered valuable
  • The future business goals of KidSense.ai

Links and mentions:

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How are we supposed to teach kids how to interact with the Internet? Featuring Diana Graber

October 2, 2019 — Leave a comment
“Almost anything our kids will do in their future, it’s gonna be via the internet or via their digital devices.”
— Diana Graber, Author of Raising Humans in a Digital World and founder of Cyberwise

What is digital literacy and why is it important for our kids to learn these skills? Founder of Cybercivics.com and Cyberwise.org, Diana Graber, joins the show to discuss theses topics and more. Diana is the author of “Raising Humans in a Digital World: Helping Kids Build a Healthy Relationship with Technology.” In this episode of Innovation for All Podcast, we take a look at Diana’s book and the Cyber Civics course she developed for schools.

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In This Episode You’ll Learn:

  • How the Cyber Civics course came to be.
  • What is Digital Literacy?
  • What the Cyber Civics curriculum looks like and why it is important
  • Does the Internet really make new problems?
  • Relationships and development online
  • What to find in the book not covered in the podcast

Links and Mentions

How data bias is making being a woman more dangerous with Caroline Criado Perez

August 28, 2019 — Leave a comment
Image credit: Rachel Louise Brown

“A lot of these tech solutions are driven by algorithms that have been trained on data that is hopelessly male biased and is severely lacking when it comes to female data. And the result of that is that a whole load of tech solutions for all sorts of things just don’t work very well for women.”
– Caroline Criado Perez, Author of Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

Caroline Criado Perez is a writer, journalist and feminist campaigner. She has written two books: Do It Like A Woman and Invisible Women. In her most recent book Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men she describes how very old data bias can affect women today. In this episode, Sheana learns about the different ways data bias is affecting women today, from trivial things such as phone size to not so trivial things such as seat belt safety. Caroline tells all this and more in this episode of Innovation For All Podcast. 

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In this episode you will learn:

  • What is male default thinking?
  • What are the consequences of male default thinking?
  • What are the consequences in tech?
  • Why the market is so bad at providing for women?
  • What is low hanging fruit for those of us who want to make money?
  • A stove example of male default thinking.
  • What can entrepreneurs and consumers do about these issues?

Links and mentions:

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What does human-centered AI even mean? A very meta conversation with Josh Lovejoy.

June 12, 2019 — Leave a comment
“When a system begins to remember us forever, and wherever we go…. we will not be our true selves. We will be the self we know it’s okay to remember.”
— Josh Lovejoy, Principal design manager, ethics and society at Microsoft.
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AI and Machine Learning systems are quickly becoming an integral part of how we work with, understand, and socialize with each other. Although this new technology is extremely exciting and offers a new wave of technological advancement, with it comes many ethical issues concerning discrimination, undermining human emotion, breaking social contracts and more.

Sheana Ahlqvist talks to Josh Lovejoy, Principal Design Manager at Microsoft, specializing in the Ethics and Society sector. Josh believes that human-centered design thinking can change the world for the better; that by seeking to address the needs of people- especially those at the margins- in ways that respect, restore and augment their capabilities, we can invent forms of technological innovation that would have otherwise been invisible.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL HEAR:

  • Why do corporations want to know what people are thinking and feeling?
  • Forming trust relationships using AI systems.
  • What is a design ethicist?
  • What kinds of things can impartial AI autonomous systems do better than humans.
  • How do autonomous AI systems take advantage of consumers?
  • What is predictive policing and how does it relate to AI ethics?
  • What are some examples of misapplications of Machine Learning systems.
  • What is a deepfake?
  • What is a mean opinion score and how does it apply to voice automation?
  • Josh’s opinion on how AI tools should be developed.
  • What happens when you give up personal data in exchange for a more personalized experience?
  • Who should have the authority to make consequential decisions about AI?
  • How will AI and Machine Learning systems shape our knowledge and create change for the future?
  • How do you create machine learning systems that are unbiased but still function effectively for the user?

LINKS:

OTHERS MENTIONED:

  • Youtube
  • Spotify
  • AI
  • Machine-Learning Algorithms
  • Predictive Policing
  • Google
  • Reddit
  • Terminator
  • Deepfake
  • Eric Horvitz
  • Microsoft Research
  • Google Duplex
  • Brad Smith
  • Wavenet
  • Deep Mind
  • Adobe
  • Mean Opinion Score
  • Moritz Hart
  • Kate Crawford
  • Stanford
  • Star Trek
  • Facebook
  • Meredith Whittaker
  • AI Now
  • Nick Bostrom
  • Super Intelligence
  • Joy Buolamwini
  • Google Clips

CONNECT WITH JOSH

  • Connect with Josh on
  • Follow Josh on