Janeen Uzzell: Chapter 2: How to Weed the Bias out of AI

It's Machine Yearning from Assist. It's a podcast where we think and dream about the future of AI, the talking internet, and how we're reshaping our culture. This chapter is an excerpt from our interview with Janine Yuzel at the 2018 VOICE Summit, the largest single gathering of the conversational design ecosystem. While we were at VOICE, we met people who are living at the front edge of creating a more inclusive culture in technology product design. Enter Janine Yuzel. Most recently, Janine was the head of women in technology for GE. There she worked across the 300,000 employee community, leading a culture shift to accelerate the number of women within GE's technical female workforce. Janine spoke with conference organizer and friend of the pod, Janice Mandel. In this conversation, they talk about how you weed the bias out of AI by building inclusive, diverse teams so you can attract and serve a diverse customer base. This is just a taste, so make sure you grab the full episode and subscribe so you never miss a single Machine Yearning. Janine Yuzel.

At your session, you were talking about that you're an evangelist for getting the bias out before we really go full forward on AI.

Right.

What does that mean? Where are you taking us?

The term evangelist, I love that we get to come up with these sleek, sexy kind of names in the tech world. But it just, you know, really means that it's a powerful, powerful thing to me. It matters so much. And we were going to baptize everybody and help convert them. Where we're taking it is this: diversity and inclusion is not a strategy or an idea. It needs to be the way that we do things always. And it only becomes that when it's your regular practice. It's like taking a shower, brushing your teeth. You just kind of do these things all the time. The value and the just the criticality of having this in our world of technology is so important. And we see the broader and the faster we go with AI, the more we're starting to see the flaws because we know that our technology is subject to the software and the software is subject to the programmer. And so every one of us that are either hands on the keyboard or in the product design rooms or leading teams that do this work need to be responsible feel a burden to ensure that there's no bias in what we're designing.

So that's where you want to get to. How are we going to get there?

Well, that's the perfect world, right? And we get there, practice, practice, practice, and over time. Because bias is inherent in all of us. You know, we could say, "Oh, I don't have any unconscious bias." Well, that's why it's unconscious, because it's there and you just don't know. And it's kind of just the way we were, we were raised or brought up, the environment that we're brought in. But to be able to build and design and to think beyond, you know, race, gender, age, sexual preference, culture, it's not even something— I'm not putting that burden all on you. It's not on one person. That's why we need diverse teams. That's why we need to have people that can help us to focus, to make sure that we're thinking a lot wider. Now, in terms of how long it'll take us to get there, It's going to be ever-evolving. This is something that will always be a practice and something that's a part of the continuum of technology. What I'm saying is that we need to pay attention to it and get it together because we're missing out. The customer is missing out. One, they're not getting a full product. We're also— there are tons of customers that we're missing by not having the breadth of product, market share. All of this affects investors, shareholders, product design, the advancement of this. It's all going to be impacted.

So, they're all part of this. Absolutely. Is this something their employers can help us do? Where does it start?

I would say for sure, when I think about employers and when I think about your hiring practices, some very tactical processes. Where are you getting your talent from? Where are you recruiting? When's the last time you refreshed the schools that you recruit at and the schools that you invest in? Because maybe some of the folks that you're looking for are going to very different schools. Maybe they're getting educated in different spaces. Everyone's not going to schools 1 through 10, but there's still some great technologists out there that have broad thinking. Another thing that's very tactical is, um, what do your job descriptions say? Sometimes we write a job description and it just sounds so dull and so dry, and the creativity that's required to make it sound much more poetic so that people are like, "Yeah, I really want to do this work." I want to be a part of this team and do this work. What are we doing with the managers and the leaders on our team? What type of training do they have and are they ready to lead the new crop of technologists that are graduating from the schools? So, you know, just some of the practical ways that we do business. But it's also the responsibility of, again, the leaders of these teams, the actual technologists themselves to want to think beyond their perspective. And again, we're not asking you to do it yourself. We're asking you to work in these mission-based teams as you design these types of products. You have to reach out and get the help. It literally has to be intentional. And like I said, if I'm not thinking about something right now, it's because it's just not my norm and I don't know to think about it. But I have to figure out how to, you know, is my team reflective? So that we can understand how to do it differently.

Thanks for listening, and we hope you'll take a second to share this episode with other members of your team. It's one of those dealbreaker places we have to get right in AI and machine learning. Get in touch on Twitter @Assist. DMs are open. We're super interested to hear who you think should appear on the podcast. Machine Yearning is made by Paul Chufo and Michael Elsässer for Limina House. Have a great day.