Flawed data is putting people with disabilities at risk – By Cat Noone (Techcrunch) / April 19 2021
Data isn’t abstract — it has a direct impact on people’s lives.
In 2019, an AI-powered delivery robot momentarily blocked a wheelchair user from safely accessing the curb when crossing a busy road. Speaking about the incident, the person noted, “It’s important that the development of technologies [doesn’t put] disabled people on the line as collateral.”
Alongside other minority groups, people with disabilities have long been harmed by flawed data and data tools. Disabilities are diverse, nuanced and dynamic; they don’t fit within the formulaic structure of AI, which is programmed to find patterns and form groups. Because AI treats any outlier data as “noise” and disregards it, too often people with disabilities are excluded from its conclusions.
CONTINUE > https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/19/flawed-data-is-putting-people-with-disabilities-at-risk/
