To give AI academics and others their well-deserved – and overdue – time in the spotlight, TechCrunch is launching an interview series focused on remarkable women who have contributed to the AI revolution. We’ll be publishing several articles throughout the year as the AI boom continues, highlighting key work that often remains overlooked. Read more profiles here.
Kate Devlin is a lecturer in AI and society at King’s College London. The author of “Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots,” which examines the ethical and social implications of technology and intimacy, Devlin’s research examines how people interact and respond to technologies, past and future.
Devlin – who organized the UK’s first sex tech hackathon in 2016 – leads advocacy and engagement for the Trusted Autonomous Systems Hub, a collaborative platform aimed at supporting the development of “socially responsible” robotics and AI systems. beneficial”. She is also a board member of Open Rights Group, an organization that works to preserve digital rights and freedoms.
Questions and answers
In short, how did you get started in AI? What attracted you to the field?
I started as an archaeologist, then changed disciplines and got a Ph.D. I received my doctorate in computer science in 2004. The idea was to integrate the subjects, but I ended up working more and more on human-computer interaction, and how people interact with computers. AI and robots, including the reception that these technologies have.
What work are you most proud of (in the field of AI)?
I’m glad that privacy and AI are now taken seriously as an area of academic study. Amazing research is underway. In the past, this was considered a very specialized and highly improbable activity; we are now seeing people forming meaningful relationships with chatbots – meaningful in the sense that they actually mean something to those people.
How can we meet the challenges of a male-dominated technology sector and, by extension, the male-dominated AI sector?
I don’t know. We just persevere. It’s still shockingly sexist. And maybe I don’t want to “lean in”; maybe I want an environment that isn’t defined around macho qualities. I guess it’s a two-pronged thing: we need more women in visible and high positions, and we need to address sexism in schools and beyond. And then, we need systemic change to stop the “leaky pipeline”: we are seeing an increase in women in AI and technology due to the increase in working from home, because it is a better fit to childcare which, let’s face it, still falls to us. . Let’s have more flexibility until we no longer have to take on the majority of this care on our own.
What advice would you give to women looking to enter the AI field?
You have the right to take up as much space as men.
What are the most pressing issues facing AI as it evolves?
Responsibility. Responsibility. There is currently a fever surrounding technological determinism – as if we are heading towards a dangerous future. We don’t have to be. It is possible to reject this. It’s okay to prioritize a different path. Very few of the problems we face are new; it’s the size and scale that make this task particularly challenging.
What issues should AI users be aware of?
Um… late-stage capitalism.
More usefully: check provenance – where does the data come from? How ethical is the supplier? Do they have a good record of social responsibility? Would you let them control your oxygen supply on Mars?
What is the best way to develop AI responsibly?
Regulation and consciousness.
How can investors better promote responsible AI?
In purely business terms, you will have much happier customers if you care about people. We can see through the ethics wash, so make it really count. Hold companies accountable for considering things like human rights, labor, sustainability, and social impact in their AI supply chain.
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