Amba Kak makes policy recommendations to address AI concerns

To give AI-focused female academics and others their deserved – and overdue – time in the spotlight, TechCrunch is launching a series of interviews Focusing on notable women who have contributed to the AI ​​revolution. As the AI ​​boom continues, we’ll be publishing several pieces throughout the year, highlighting key work that often goes unrecognized. Read more profiles Here,

Amba Kak She is the executive director of the AI ​​Now Institute, where she helps create policy recommendations to address AI concerns. She was also a senior AI advisor at the Federal Trade Commission and previously worked as a global policy advisor at Mozilla and a legal advisor to India’s telecom regulator on net-neutrality.

Briefly, how did you get your start in AI? What attracted you to this field?

This is not a straightforward question because “AI” is a term that has been in use for a long time to describe evolving practices and systems; I’ve been working on technology policy for over a decade and in many parts of the world And seen when everything was about “big data” and then everything became about “AI”. But the core issues we were concerned about – how data-driven technologies and economies impact society – remain the same.

I was drawn to these questions early in law school in India, where, amid decades and sometimes centuries of precedent, I was inspired to work in an area where “pre-policy” questions, What are the standard questions? Is this the world we want? What role should technology play in this? Stay open-minded and competitive. Globally, the big debate at the time was whether the Internet could be regulated at the national level (which seems pretty obvious now, yes!), and in India, there was a heated debate over whether creating a biometric ID database May go? The entire population was creating a dangerous vehicle of social control. In the face of narratives of inevitability around AI and the technology, I think regulation and advocacy are a way to shape the trajectory of the technology to serve the public interest rather than the interests of the bottom line of companies or those who hold power in society. Can be a powerful tool. , Of course, over the years, I have also learned that regulation is often co-opted by these interests too, and can often serve to maintain the status quo rather than challenge it. So this is the work!

What work (in the AI ​​field) are you most proud of?

Our 2023 AI Landscape report was released in April amid the height of the ChatGPT-fueled AI discussion – it was part diagnosis of what should keep us up at night about the AI ​​economy, part action-oriented manifesto aimed at the broader civil society community. Was . It met that moment – ​​a moment when both diagnosis and what to do about it were missing, and in their place were narratives about the omniscience and inevitability of AI. We highlighted that the AI ​​boom is further strengthening the concentration of power within a very narrow section of the tech industry, and I think we successfully transcended the hype to focus attention on the impacts of AI on society and the economy Is… and none of it is believed it was inevitable.

Later in the year, we were able to bring this argument to a room full of government leaders and top AI executives at the UK AI Safety Summit, where I was one of only three civil society voices representing the public interest. It’s a lesson in understanding the power of a compelling counter-narrative when it’s easy to get swept up in the curated and often self-serving narratives from the tech industry.

How do you deal with the challenges of the male-dominated tech industry and, by extension, the male-dominated AI industry?

The tech industry, and AI in particular, is overwhelmingly white and male and geographically concentrated in very affluent urban bubbles. But I want to stay away from the white man problem of AI again, not just because it is now well known, but also because it can sometimes create the illusion of quick fixes or diversity theater in itself. Will not resolve underlying structural inequalities and power imbalances. The tech industry is currently operating. It does not address the deep-rooted “solutionism” that is responsible for many harmful or exploitative uses of technology.

The real issue we need to grapple with is the creation of a small group of companies and within them – a handful of individuals have amassed unprecedented access to capital, networks and power, reaping the rewards of the surveillance business model. Who operate it. The last decade of the Internet. And this concentration of power is projected to get much worse with AI. These individuals operate with impunity, even though the platforms and infrastructure they control have enormous social and economic impact.

How do we navigate this? By exposing the power dynamics that the tech industry tries so hard to hide. We talk about the incentives, infrastructure, labor markets, and environment that power these waves of technology and shape its direction. That’s what we’ve been doing at AI Now for nearly a decade, and when we do it well, we make it difficult for policymakers and the public to look away – creating counter-narratives and alternative imaginations for the technology’s proper role. Make Within the society.

What advice would you give to women wanting to enter the AI ​​field?

For women, but also for other minority identities or viewpoints who wish to criticize the AI ​​industry from outside, the best advice I can give is to stand your ground. This is a field that will routinely and systematically attempt to discredit criticism, especially when it doesn’t come from a traditionally STEM background – and it’s easy to do so because AI is such an opaque industry that it can make you feel like That you are always trying to move from the outside back in. Even when you’ve been in the field for decades like I have, powerful voices in the industry will still try to undermine you and your legitimate criticism simply because you’re challenging the status quo.

You and I have as much say in the future of AI as Sam Altman, because the technologies will impact us all and potentially impact people with minority identities in harmful ways. Right now, we are in a battle over who will claim expertise and authority on matters of technology within society… so we really need to claim that space and make our case.