Can Technology be biased? Or are we biased in our implementation and use?

A wise person once said something along the lines of “computers are in reality just stupid machines with the potential to do incredible things if we program them right. And we humans are really incredible beings with the potential to do very stupid things… “

Unconscious Bias effects the way Users interact with Technology. But how responsible are YOU for preventing Bias when you build solutions?

Biases are a part of the natural, social order of things. But do we really want this also to be reflected in our technologies, and use thereof? We’re not only talking about genders and ethnicities, but health and fitness, fashion, and other social traits and cultural aspects we may unwillingly influence by pouring our own world-views and preconceptions into the technology we build. 

We need to ask ourselves what exactly it is that we want to reach with technology, and how we can use it to better ourselves as humans, and not just how we can become more and more technically superior – whatever that means… 

In this talk, Sudan Jackson takes us through different examples of where our use of technology ended up other than originally intended, a look into how intelligent machines really are, and gives an appell to put more thought into what we do, why we do it, and who we really do it for.

And perhaps we can make Steve Jobs’ statement a reality: that if we have faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.