Protecting civil rights in the face of AI | The TechTank Podcast

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become ubiquitous in this digital age. However, AI today exists with inherent biases, particularly those deployed for use in the areas of finance, employment, law enforcement, and housing. The use of AI in such sectors has exacerbated societal prejudices. For example, the adoption of facial recognition by law enforcement has led to wrongful convictions of innocent individuals of color due to AI technology’s inaccuracies and biases. Such biases are products of historical inequities, and must be regulated by policies aimed at safeguarding the rights of marginalized groups. Can civil rights and algorithmic systems coexist? Can they coexist equitably?

This week on the TechTank Podcast, we revisit a relevant-as-ever discussion from 2022 on civil rights and artificial intelligence. On this episode co-host Nicol Turner Lee is joined by Renee Cummings, a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings and data activist in residence and criminologist at the University of Virginia’s School of Data Science, along with Lisa Rice, president and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance. Together, they conduct a thorough exploration of these complex issues and provide valuable insights into addressing the urgent issue of equitable AI.

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