When algorithms discriminate: Robotics, AI and ethics

Stephen Roberts discusses the threats and promises of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Al Jazeera talks to Stephen Roberts, professor of Machine Learning at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, on the role machine learning plays in our lives today – and in the future. Whether it’s from algorithms that are trading on global financial markets, to smart algorithms that are scanning our emails … predictive text on our mobile phones is another such intelligent algorithm. “It becomes almost bizarre philosophical commentary but as a society we need to address these questions head-on … What happens if a robot surgeon gets something wrong? The world is much bigger than white men and yet an algorithm doesn’t necessarily have the sensitivity to understand that it is looking at a very biased collection of pictures,” professor Roberts explains.