Read the full transcript of author and podcaster Avva Thach’s talk titled “Including Diverse Voices In The AI Conversation” at TEDxSugarLand conference on May 14, 2024.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
AVVA THACH: Imagine, you are alone in your car, going on a new road, but suddenly your GPS flickers out and it’s dark outside, everything looks the same. In a split second, you took a wrong turn, it costs you dearly. Just like navigating a new road without a proper map, implementing AI without a thoughtful strategy can cost you money, time, or worse. But if we each hold a piece of that map, our collective voices guide us to the right destination. Only together can we make innovation happen.
The Dangers of Ignoring Diverse Voices
Self-driving cars promise a safer future for road travelers. Yet on a quiet evening in March 2018, an Uber self-driving car failed to deliver this promise. Even with its advanced AI technology, it failed to detect Elaine as she walked her bicycle across the street in Tempe, Arizona, that night. At 49 years old, Elaine tragically lost her life. Rushing to implement AI strategy without considering diverse voices in the system can lead to detrimental consequences.
The Challenger disaster is another example of voices being ignored. On a cold morning, January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger was set to pierce the sky. Despite a warning, engineering voice about the O-ring failures, freezing, breaking in freezing temperature, the launch proceeded. Seventy-three seconds into the flight, disaster struck. The shuttle blew up, broken into pieces, and at that moment, the world witnessed a heart-wrenching loss. We mourn the loss of seven astronauts.
AI Integration in Today’s World
Fast forward to today, we’re under a massive change in technology in business landscape.
According to the recent tech report, 20% of the organizations have formally deployed AI-related technologies, and another 55% are planning to do that soon. AI has become an integral part of our life and work.
The other day, a friend of mine shared with me a post that he saw on social media, and it says, “I just got married to the love of my life. The wedding vows was perfect. P.S., thanks, ChatGPT.”
Not every AI integration is perfect. There are many times there’s AI facial systems that fail to recognize diverse faces. There are AI systems that can only understand one language, one culture. There’s implications for other groups, for other cultures. Creating an inclusive AI strategy is not a nice to have. It is a necessity for building innovation, for economic growth, and more importantly, to build a more equitable world.
Learning from Past Mistakes
We are standing at a crossroads. Will we learn from the past mistakes, or will we risk repeating them again? Learning from the past mistakes means start to listen to those diverse voices now, at our present time. Listening to those voices so that we can start to create a harmonious empathy, harmonious union between artificial intelligence and emotional intelligence.
Learning to listen to those diverse voices so that we can go beyond the goal of adopting technological tools, but rather, our vision should be using those tools to amplify those diverse voices, to create connections, to celebrate our diversity, and ultimately, to serve humanity in the digital age.
Combining AI and Emotional Intelligence
Take Bumble as an example. It’s beyond just an online dating app. It is a marriage of artificial intelligence and emotional intelligence. It started out with diverse voices being heard, and it has revolutionized the online dating norm. It empowers women to start the first move now with AI, with machine learning. Now Bumble starts to amplify those diverse voices using prompts to really make sure that every gender identity, every sexual orientation are heard, seen, and respected. The answer then, not just about hearing those voices, but really deeply listening to them.
Bumble delivers value, but according to the latest report by KPMG, many organizations now adopt IT tools rapidly, but over 70% of the organizations fail to deliver value to customers in this digital age. Why? Why there’s so many organizations fail to deliver value? Despite the resilience, we have overcome challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of organizations have top-tier challenge. So why?
From the same report, KPMG, one critical challenge arise. The communications barriers between IT and business leaders in my line of work in digital transformation, time and time again, I’ve noticed there’s a lack of the robust system where there’s diverse voices can be heard, seen, and respected. So in order to create a better AI integration, we must hear those voices. But it’s not just hearing those voices, but we have to create the system for these diverse voices to be there, to have a safe space to share those thoughts.
Creating Inclusive AI Strategies
Imagine every AI initiative starts in a safe room with all these diverse voices, from the insightful frontline staff to the pragmatic engineers, from the curious thinkers to the visionary speakers and the devil’s advocates. Every voice matters, and together we can co-create a more ethical, more inclusive AI strategy that serves the needs of our diverse society.
Let me share with you an example. It was late evening in the U.S. and morning in India, and our team, Kurt, myself, Sudhir, were deep into the trenches. We’re using AI to create an AI strategy as an initial step. Suddenly, Kurt, the CEO of the healthcare company, said, “Ava, you’re 10x better than ChatGPT with your questions.” That lighthearted comment brought us back together, brought our humanity together, and we start to hone in to each other’s voices. We start to listen deeper to the chronic patient’s voices.
Kurt continued to share how challenging it is for them. Every single day, even a mundane task is demanding, both physically and mentally. We start to connect with their pains better, and together we’re creating better insight, better questions. We’re starting to ask, what if our AI is going beyond just sending security information, but also creating that emotional connection, helping, motivating our clients, our patients.
With that insight, we expanded our circles. We asked for more voices in the system. The AI engineer, our advisor, we’ve done more research. We’re making AI more inclusive, becoming our partner, rather than an autopilot. Mastering the art of deep listening, to hear those voices, really transformed our AI strategy. In the last meeting, where all the AI projects presented, our project was ranked number one by a prominent venture capital firm.
Throughout this process, it is not that we’re leading with the result first, but we led with all those voices, we let all those voices to be seen, be heard, be respected.
Starting with Self-Awareness
But how do we do that? It starts with us. In order to hear those voices, we have to start within ourselves. We have to start to have that humility, that self-awareness, so that we can hear the voice, the fear, the emotions, so that we can start to connect with our most profound insights.
I work with executive leaders, IT business teams, entrepreneurs, every time in the room. It is all about accessing the voices within us, so that we can lead with compassion than authority.
So let’s commit to create an inclusive AI future in both AI development and AI implementations. Tonight, take the time for yourself. Listen within yourself. Hear other voices, asking whose voice is missing? Challenge the status quo. But together, let’s co-create an AI strategy that builds a better future, more inclusive, more equitable, and avoid those costly mistakes. What happened to Elaine? What happened to those seven astronauts? Together, we can create a profound impact in our world. Thank you.
