Module 10 – Responsible AI
intermediate25 XP

Be a Fair AI Champion! šŸ†

Why AI can be unfair, why that matters, and how YOU can be part of making it better

Be a Fair AI Champion! šŸ†

The Shocking Face Recognition Problem

In 2018, MIT researcher Joy Buolamwini tested major facial recognition systems from big companies.

The results were shocking:

GroupError Rate
Light-skinned men1%
Dark-skinned women35%

The same AI was 35Ɨ more likely to get it wrong for dark-skinned women!

Why? The training data had far more photos of light-skinned faces. AI learned to be great at recognizing them — and bad at the others.

šŸ¢ The Amazon Hiring Problem (Again!)

Amazon built an AI to sort job applications. It was trained on 10 years of successful hires — most of whom were men.

The AI learned to penalize resumes that contained words like "women's" (e.g., "women's chess club captain").

Amazon scrapped the system when they found out. But it had already been running for years! 😰

Where Does Bias Come From?

Code
Unfair society
     ↓
Unfair historical data
     ↓
AI learns unfair patterns
     ↓
AI makes unfair decisions
     ↓
At MASSIVE scale 😱
     ↓
Makes unfairness worse!

āœ… How to Fight AI Bias

  1. Diverse training data: Include all groups fairly
  2. Diverse teams: People from different backgrounds spot different problems
  3. Bias testing: Test AI specifically on underrepresented groups
  4. Human oversight: Keep humans in charge of important decisions
  5. Transparency: Explain how AI makes decisions

🦸 Safe Habits for Using AI

Code
āœ… Always ask: "Could this be wrong?"
āœ… Verify medical/legal/safety info from real sources
āœ… Tell an adult if AI says something worrying
āœ… Don't share personal info
āœ… If something feels off, trust your instincts
āœ… Take breaks — AI tools are designed to be engaging!

šŸ’” You Are the Future!

The people who will FIX AI bias are:

  • Researchers who test AI fairly (like Joy Buolamwini!)
  • Engineers who build more diverse training datasets
  • Policy makers who write AI fairness laws
  • Kids who grow up understanding these issues

That's you. Learning this stuff at your age means you're already ahead! šŸš€

Quick check

01/3
Why was the facial recognition system much less accurate for dark-skinned women?