Table Of ContentAI FOR DIVERSITY
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly impacting many aspects of
people’s lives across the globe, from relatively mundane technology
to more advanced digital systems that can make their own decisions.
While AI has great potential, it also holds great peril depending on
how it is designed and used. AI for Diversity questions how AI technol-
ogy can lead to inclusion or exclusion for diverse groups in society.
The way data is selected, trained, used, and embedded into societies
can have unfortunate consequences unless we critically investigate
the dangers of systems left unchecked, and can lead to misogynistic,
homophobic, racist, ageist, transphobic, or ableist outcomes. This
book encourages the reader to take a step back to see how AI is
impacting diverse groups of people and how diversity-awareness
strategies can impact AI.
Roger A. Søraa is an Associate Professor at the Department of
Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture at the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology (NTNU), in Trondheim, Norway. His main
research interests are the digitalization and robotization of society
and its ethical, gendered, and epistemological consequences. He leads
the Digitalization and Robotization of Society research group and
coordinates several research projects, including the Horizon Europe
project “BIAS: Mitigating Diversity Biases in the Labor Market.”
AI FOR EVERYTHING
Artificial intelligence (AI) is all around us. From driverless cars to
game-winning computers to fraud protection, AI is already involved
in many aspects of life, and its impact will only continue to grow
in the future. Many of the world’s most valuable companies are
investing heavily in AI research and development, and not a day goes
by without news of cutting-edge breakthroughs in AI and robotics.
The AI for Everything series will explore the role of AI in contemporary
life, from cars and aircraft to medicine, education, fashion, and beyond.
Concise and accessible, each book is written by an expert in the field and
will bring the study and reality of AI to a broad readership including
interested professionals, students, researchers, and lay readers.
AI for Cars AI for Learning
Josep Aulinas & Hanky Sjafrie Carmel Kent & Benedict du Boulay
AI for Digital Warfare
AI for Social Justice
Niklas Hageback & Daniel Hedblom
Alan Dix & Clara Crivellaro
AI for Art
AI for the Sustainable
Niklas Hageback & Daniel Hedblom
Development Goals
AI for Creativity Henrik Skaug Sætra
Niklas Hageback
AI for Healthcare Robotics
AI for Death and Dying
Eduard Fosch-Villaronga & Hadassah
Maggi Savin-Baden
Drukarch
AI for Radiology
AI for Physics
Oge Marques
Volker Knecht
AI for Games
Ian Millington AI for Diversity
Roger A. Søraa
AI for School Teachers
Rose Luckin, Karine George &
Mutlu Cukurova
For more information about this series please visit:
https://www.routledge.com/AI-for-Everything/book-series/AIFE
AI FOR
DIVERSITY
ROGER A. SØRAA
Norwegian University of Science
and Technology
First edition published 2023
by CRC Press
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and by CRC Press
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CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
© 2023 Roger A. Søraa
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ISBN: 978-1-032-07444-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-07356-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-20695-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.1201/9781003206958
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CONTENTS
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviation List xi
1 Opening the Black Box of AI 1
2 Gendered AI: Performativity, Expectations, and Sexism 21
3 Queering AI: Gender Expression, Identity, and Binaries 39
4 AI and Race: Recognition, Bias, and Systemic Issues 49
5 Bodies and AI: Health, Aging, and Disabilities 61
6 AI and Class: Work, Education, and Sustainability 83
7 Intersectionality and Responsible AI 99
Index 117
PREFACE
Digital technology has a major impact on our lives. They can be a
wonderful addition to enrich, simplify, and optimize daily practices
if used well, but they also have more sinister implications when
not designed or used responsibly for a diverse group of people.
Unwrapping how digital technology can be used to better—not
worsen—human lives, and how it can be inclusive to a wide range
of users and developers is the centerpiece of this book. The idea for
writing this book came from my time working for the European
Commission as an expert advisor and evaluator on the Gendered
Innovations 2 Expert Group on how gender and diversity awareness can
improve technologies and research in more just, inclusive, and robust
ways. When people from homogeneous backgrounds are left alone
to define which programs, systems, and data we use in our daily
lives and societies, we risk building a less inclusive and more heavily
trajected world toward their priorities and experiences—leaving all
“others” behind. We still have a long way to go to diversify AI and its
related fields to be more inclusive and better for all. Use this book as
a guiding introduction to how you can identify unfair data and situ-
ated exclusion and a tool for avoiding bias and building knowledge
for a better world for all.
viii PREFAcE
WHO IS THIS BOOK NOT FOR?
If you are looking for a technical book explaining how different AI
systems work, this is not the book for you. Neither is this book an
encyclopedia of all existing AIs that exist. There are bound to be blind
spots and systems not covered in such a short book. Likewise, gender
scholars might want a much larger book that goes in-depth on each
topic on a more theoretical level. Neither the dystopian reader seek-
ing a vendetta against all AI as bad nor the blissful techno-utopists
seeing all AI as benevolent should pick up this book. However, if you
want a critical investigation into how different AI systems can impact
societal and individual diversity in terms of inclusion and exclusion
of specific groups, and want to learn more about that topic, then,
by all means, read this book, and help build a better world of AI for
diversity.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my research group and research partners who
have been involved in the commenting and writing process of this
book. Particularly, I would like to thank the helpful reviewers for
their insightful comments and suggestions: Ashley Shew, Elisabeth
Stubberud, Inga Strümke, Jennifer Branlat, Julie Katrine Flikke,
Katherine Evans, Kristine Ask, Mark W. Kharas, Martine Sletten,
Mascha Kurpicz-Briki, Siri Øyslebø Sørensen, Sofia Moratti, Sophia
Ivarsson, and two anonymous reviewers. Big thanks to Nienke
Bruijning for the illustrations and my Editor, Elliott Morsia, and the
editorial team at CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group, as well as project
manager Yassar Arafat. This book was made possible by the following
projects: Robotics4EU (European Union Horizon 2020 research and
innovation program grant agreement number 101017283), LIFEBOTS
Exchange (European Union Horizon 2020 research and innova-
tion program grant agreement number 824047), and AUTOWORK
(Norwegian Research Council project number 301088).
