Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and the LGBTQ Community
Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the capability of hardware and software technology to perform tasks associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It does so through machine learning, the process of getting incrementally smarter by repeating activity and refining outcomes until they are deemed appropriate. This follows from previous work in designing, manufacturing, and operating robots or technological machines to complete repeated tasks.
Today, AI and robotics are at the leading edge of engineering and computer science. Many new companies have emerged in these areas over the past few years, and their economic valuations have soared.
There are many concerns about AI for the LGBTQ community as it becomes more advanced and accessible to everyone. The biggest risks to the community are the risks of bias, discrimination, normalized outcomes, and surveillance. Errors in interpretation can lead to misidentification and profiling, adding to the community's existing negative societal experience. Through repeated learning, AI attempts to learn the norm: however, the LGBTQ community has never been the norm and thus runs the risk of continuing to be misunderstood and an outlier to AI-driven outcomes. In short, AI has the danger of creating a more marginalizing environment for the LGBTQ community. AI bias particularly affects discriminated and minority groups.
There are several prominent engineers, scientists, academics, and others who are active in the AI and Robotics sector. They are analyzing and commenting on all of these risks.
Formal groups which represent practitioners and academics in the field include: QueerinAO (Qai) whose mission is to raise awareness of queer issues in AI/ML, foster a community of queer researchers and celebrate the work of queer scientists; and QueerinRobotics (QiR), an organization dedicated to fostering an inclusive community for LGBTQ+ roboticists and amplifying queer voices in the world of robotics.
Canada
- Dax Dasilva, Lightspeed Commerce Inc.
- Patrick Keilty, academic
- Danica Sutherland, academic
Great Britain
- Alan Turing, the 'father' of computer sciences
Israel
- Shachar Grembek, RepsAI
- Yuval Harari, historian whose books include AI's role in human development
United States
- J. Bob Alotta, Mozilla Foundation
- Sam Altman, OpenAI
- Ana Arriola, Microsoft
- Michael Berresse, actor in the film 'AI Artificial Intelligence'
- Jen Carter, Google.org
- Vivian Chu, Diligent Robotics
- Raj Korpan, academic and co-founder, QueerinAI
- Vivienne Ming, Socos (machine learning)
- Daniel Pillis, academic
- Andrea Sipos, co-founder of Queer in Robotics (QiR)
- Christine Su, EBay
- Alexandr Wang, Scale AI data annotation platform
See Also
Further Reading/Research
- https://www.kubrickgroup.com/us/insights/ai-lgbtq-opportunities-challenges
- https://news.mit.edu/2024/how-ai-might-shape-lgbtqia-advocacy-0507
- https://www.forbidden-colours.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/240130-Report-on-LGBTIQ-AI.pdf
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiewareham/2021/03/21/why-artificial-intelligence-will-always-fail-lgbtq-people/
- https://theweek.com/tech/ai-concerns-lgbtq-community
- https://sites.google.com/view/queerinrobotics/
- https://www.queerinai.com/
