Communications of the ACM
This Indian Techie Is Fighting Sexism in Artificial Intelligence
Kriti Sharma is currently working on an AI system to help report domestic abuse.
What do you do when you're a 14-year-old who wants a computer but doesn't have one? Kriti Sharma did what seemed obvious: she devoured tech tomes and built herself one.
The 30-year-old is a problem solver. Problem No. 1 on her list right now is sexism in tech. Frustrated by the reinforcement of sexist ideas by bots, she created Pegg, a gender-neutral personal finance assistant. Most virtual assistants have female personas—Siri, Alexa, Cortana are at your beck and call for mundane tasks. AI platforms such as IBM's Watson and Salesforce's Einstein get more complex tasks. "This reminds me of the TV show Mad Men, the idea of this female secretary who is subservient. You're reinforcing the same behavior," Sharma says.
Kids today are growing up with AI, says Sharma, VP of artificial intelligence and ethics at Sage, a British software company. "If they grow up in a world where they can shout orders at a female voice without saying thank you, sorry, or please, that's not right. It's wiring them to see this stereotypical behavior as normal."
From The Times of India
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