Amba Kak’s Policy Recommendations to Tackle AI Concerns
To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch is launching a series of interviews focusing on remarkable women who’ve contributed to the AI revolution. We’ll publish several pieces throughout the year as the AI boom continues, highlighting key work that often goes unrecognized. Read more profiles here.
Amba Kak is the executive director of the AI Now Institute, where she helps create policy recommendations to address AI concerns. She was also a senior AI advisor at the Federal Trade Commission and previously worked as a global policy advisor at Mozilla and a legal advisor to India’s telecom regulator on net-neutrality.
I’m also really proud of a lot of the work I did during my term as Senior Advisor to the Federal Trade Commission on AI, working on emerging technology issues and some of the key enforcement actions in that domain. It was an incredible team to be a part of, and I also learned the crucial lesson that even one person in the right room at the right time really can make a difference in influencing policymaking.
The tech industry, and AI in particular, remains overwhelmingly white and male and geographically concentrated in very wealthy urban bubbles. But I like to reframe away from AI’s white dude problem not just because it’s now well known but also because it can sometimes create the illusion of quick fixes or diversity theater that on their own won’t solve the structural inequalities and power imbalances embedded in how the tech industry currently operates. It doesn’t solve the deep-rooted “solutionism” that’s responsible for many harmful or exploitative uses of tech.
The real problem we face lies in the establishment of a select cluster of firms, and more narrowly—a few individuals, who have achieved an extraordinary level of access to capital, connections, and influence. They are the beneficiaries of the monitoring-focused business approach that has fueled the past decade of the internet. And this accumulation of control is predicted to exacerbate drastically with the emergence of AI. These people operate without restraint, even as the platforms and systems they command have far-reaching social and economic implications.
What is our strategy to tackle this? By bringing to light the power relations that the tech sector makes great attempts to mask. We discuss the motivations, structures, employment markets, and the environment, which illustrate these waves of technology and plan its future course. This has been our approach at AI Now for almost ten years, and when we implement it effectively, it becomes challenging for policymakers and the general public to ignore, resulting in counter-narratives and alternate visions for the suitable role of technology within society.
For women, and also for other marginalized identities or perspectives striving to articulate critiques from outside the AI industry, the most valuable counsel I could offer is to remain steadfast. This is an industry that will frequently and systematically endeavour to discredit criticism, particularly when it originates from non-traditional STEM backgrounds. The opacity of the AI industry lends itself to this, making you feel like you’re consistently resisting from the outskirts. Even when you’ve been in the compartment for several years like me, influential figures in the industry will try to undervalue you and your legitimate critique merely because you’re challenging the norm.
You and I are just as entitled to weigh in on the future of AI as Sam Altman since the technology will influence all of us and is likely to impact people identifying as minorities disproportionately in detrimental ways. At the moment, we’re witnessing a battle for the declaration of expertise and authority on matters regarding technology within society, implying we really need to assert our presence and maintain our stance.
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