Lynn Ruane (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

As a politician, you might be at meetings and you might hear another politician or a Minister say they can potentially use machine learning or AI to filter waiting lists or whatever. This has been commented on in the Chamber. I never really know quite what they mean when they say that, even if they do. What I am concerned about, and what I want the witnesses to comment on, is language to the effect that particular demographics are potentially developing machine learning and how this may be closely aligned with those who are already in decision-making roles. Say, for example, a human has to make a decision but the machine involved is learning and is being taught a certain language which is very close to that used by those who already have power. A few weeks back, someone suggested that they were looking at using some sort of AI to filter and shortlist the applications relating to a process for State funding. What concerns me about this is that the AI or whatever machine is involved on the receiving end recognises its own language input. In the context of community services, you have people who left school very young and who are running amazing initiatives in communities, but they do not use the same dialect, grammar or language as the machine involved. My concern is that the machine will start filtering information on the basis of a way of using language because it was built in a particular way by the people who are assessing the applications. Does that make sense?