AI Lacks Ethic Checks for Human Experimentation
Linnet Taylor · Issues in Science and Technology · 2023
Sometime last summer, I needed to install a new dryer in my home in Bergen, Norway.I opened a localized version of Google and typed a request for instructions in Norwegian.Everything the search engine returned was irrelevant-most results assumed my dryer relied on gas, which is not a thing in Norway.Even refining responses for electric dryers assumed configurations that do not exist in my country.I realized that these useless results must be machine-translated from elsewhere.They appeared Norwegian, but they couldn't help me get a dryer running in Norway.In this case, the solution was trivial: a trip to a neighborhood hardware store got me wired in.But my experience underscores an underappreciated risk that comes with the spread of generative artificial intelligence: the loss of diverse cultural narratives, content, and heritage.Failing to take the cultural aspects of generative AI seriously is likely to result in the streamlining of human expression into the patterns of the largely American content that these systems are trained on.As generative AI is integrated into everyday tools such as word processors and search engines, it's time to think about what kinds of Artificial intelligence is reshaping society, but human forces shape AI.Social scientists and humanities experts explore how to harness the interaction, revealing urgent avenues for research and policy.