The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, made this statement at a town hall meeting on Monday in Ottawa, California, arguing that more “diversity” is required among computer programmers working on AI to prevent the creation of “evil” algorithms.
Quote from Trudeau
Canada has a leg up on the competition when it comes to artificial intelligence because the rest of the world looks to us and a select few others to spearhead the global partnership for AI. This partnership includes discussions on the ethics of AI, such as how to design programs that can teach them to act morally and responsibly.
It’s also important that the folks creating these algorithms reflect a diverse range of backgrounds and perspectives.
The more you can guarantee the incorporation of multiple perspectives and different experiences, the more likely you are to create something more suited to the kinds of challenges around the world. If you have a small group of non-diverse people designing a machine, there will be biases and ways of thinking that slip into it no matter what they want to do.
Canada is a country that respects its citizens’ rights to personal autonomy and acknowledges the significance of cultural variety and the worth of every person.
Trudeau said that less “diverse” professional groupings outperformed more diverse ones. Canada, he said, is an international role model when it comes to diversity.
Those of you in the tech sector, or any innovative or creative sector, know full well that diversity of perspectives, backgrounds, stories, and experiences contribute in really meaningful ways to sparking new ideas, new solutions, and finding new ways to solve old problems, which is one of the great things about Canada.
Resilience, as we can see in nature, is a product of variety. Compared to a monoculture or an area reduced to only a few species, a highly diversified ecosystem is better able to withstand shocks and upheavals.
The same is true when attempting to solve a problem with a group of people; if everyone in the group attended the same school, had the same upbringing, the same religion, and spoke the same language at home, it’s unlikely that any more creative or innovative solutions will emerge that would emerge from a random sampling of the population.
There were a total of twelve occurrences of the terms “diverse” and “diversity” in Trudeau’s remarks during the town hall session.