What is the talk about? AI, ML, robots and automation, together they seem the Holy Grail of technology. From hard-core programers to business leaders, everybody seems to be betting on these technologies. We have seen many successful implementations, yet it all has a dark side.

One of the major misconceptions in big data, the data that feeds these machine-learning algorithms, is that it is flawless since it possess “all information”. Spoiler-alert: It does not. And because of this assumption, robots are even being trusted to make decisions that require Emotional Intelligence and Ethics, qualities they don’t posses.

ML-powered AI becomes uncontrollable to a sense that we stop to understand why certain decisions were made. And since it is often used to optimise a single, shallow metric (such as money, clicks, etc.) it can be brutally discriminatory and bad.

We know for example that even a sophisticated algorithm such as Facebook’s impressive advertising machine will optimise for Gambling addicts and Alcoholics when advertising flight tickets to Las Vegas (because they are most likely to buy). And Amazon shut down a robot that was tasked to review CV’s, because it started to only select male CV’s as potential new employees.

This is something we should turn around. It is time to bring humans back to spots in which they excel over robots and prepare ourselves for a future in which man and machine work together to make this world a better place for everybody.

Who is it for? For everybody that works in the technology industry, from programers to its business leaders.

Why is it relevant for you? We as a community have a responsibility in addressing the flaws of today’s technology infrastructure. The OS clearly needs an update and some of the features we have created have bugs that need fixing.

What is unique about the talk? Brand Humanizing is a new term/concept that I have coined together with my friend Ferry Hoes (who works as an entrepreneur in the tech-space), to describe the phenomenon of making technology humane again. The talk will offer a new approach to the future of tech and a different perspective than today’s popular ideas about the future.

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Dion Snoeijen at 17:16 on 8 Jun 2019

Very interesting sfuff, a well laid out talk with a great speaker.