AI for Media: Getting the ethics and policy right: Kay Firth-Butterfield
By Christi Warren
As media organizations grow their use of machine learning and artificial intelligence, the ethical deployment of those technologies must remain at the forefront. So said the head of Kay Firth-Butterfield, head of machine learning for the World Economic
Forum, at the 10th Data & AI for Media Week at Microsoft in San Francisco on May 2.
Ms. Butterfield studies the balance between the benefits and threats of AI across industries and applications. It’s a balance she works to help companies and countries understand, as they begin to harness these emerging technologies. But the question inherent in that balance is not what can we do with AI, but what should we do with AI, she said.
As social media continues to affect attention spans, limiting them for audiences, one media use for AI could be to more efficiently create news stories, but should we?
“We need to think about, as human beings, should we be encouraged to read more, to read longer, to be more in-depth?” Firth-Butterfield said.
As AI becomes more ingrained in everyday media practices, organizations must keep human-centered design at the forefront. Media organizations need to remember their role as guardians of truth when using these technologies, she said.
“The time is now for us to be having these conversations, not when we’ve developed the technology and let it loose,” she said.
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