Page 23 - EngineerIT April 2022

ICT – THE METAVERSE

The Metaverse is here, and you're

invited. But who's in charge?

In the metaverse, who governs the governor?
You may like the metaverse, but will it like you?
Metaverse: what can go wrong when computers rule?
Facebook: “AI does creepy things and must be shut down”
Metaverse: “Hold my beer.”

Colin Thornton, chief commercial officer at Turrito, unpacks the essential considerations that have
to govern the use of artificial intelligence and algorithms in the burgeoning metaverse.

he metaverse conversation has spiked. It’s on every digital wall and circles most
conversations about innovation, the future, and immersive digital reality. It is also a
Tlayered and nuanced concept that asks the world to hit pause before it steps inside the
digital walls, before people become half unicorn-mermaids, and every asset and sale is digitised
in a wholly virtual realm, because the world isn’t ready. The technology isn’t ready. The
hardware necessary to create the virtual worlds that people are imagining doesn’t exist yet, but real-time translations, collaborations and
it will soon. The bigger problem, which can’t be solved with technology, is that these systems experiences. This sounds amazing but it’s
contain inherent bias – bias built into algorithms and systems that will fundamentally impact being built by the same company that’s
how people experience and live in the metaverse. been found to have gender bias, with its
In 2019, the Apple credit card launch met with immediate problems. It was sexist. The most recent issue being the promotion of
algorithm would offer smaller lines of credit to women than men, even though gender was not certain job ads only to men. Research has
one of the input methods. While the latter fact was issued as defence against the algorithm’s bias, also found racially discriminatory content on
the reality is that bias is built from multiple foundations that can be anything from location to age the social media platform.
to job description. It took several people applying for credit to really underscore how significantly Meta is not alone and Twitter has also
the card’s algorithm was biased against women – even Steve Wozniak stepped in saying that he been called out on its algorithmic biases,
got ten times more credit than his wife, and they don’t have separate bank accounts. as has LinkedIn. All very much in favour
The MIT Media Lab Gender Shades Project found that AI was packed full of bias, right down of men, particularly white men, which is
to its ability to detect skin colour and gender. The AI systems analysed struggled to identify nice for them but not for the remaining –
women of colour, and to identify women overall. Google Autocomplete met with significant very large – percentage of the population.
criticism as far back as 2016 – ongoing in 2018 - with its racist sentence completions that have, These examples shine a spotlight on the
as of 2022, been mostly managed but still highlight how bias crept into a system designed for fact that even if humans are ready for AI,
comprehensive neutrality. Also in 2018, Amazon had to ditch its AI recruitment tool because AI isn’t necessarily ready for humans. It’s
it had taught itself that men were better candidates based on system bias within the global not even remotely ready for the immersive,
workforce. In short, the AI spat out men over women when the company was looking for top predictive and intuitive digital life put
people to fill its roles. forward by proponents of the metaverse.
Fast forward to 2022 and the problem hasn’t gone away. In fact, it should be very AI is not truly independent. It is reliant
much a blaring red horn on the digital horizon as technology leaders and heavy hitting tech on those who create it and in order to
enterprises gallop toward the metaverse saloon. In a recent analysis of AI undertaken by the change this dialogue, it’s essential that
World Economic Forum, researchers underscored the importance of recognising bias through there is a fundamental change in how AI is
meticulous testing, real world environment modelling, and implementing clear strategies for designed and created, and the power that it
fairness and non-discrimination. As the report points out, it is far too easy for ‘the existing bias has. If it does become the controlling force
in our society to be transferred to algorithms’. in the metaverse, it can very easily entrench
Now, apparently on the brink of diving into the metaverse, Meta has embarked on building or expand the cracks that are so apparent in
the world’s fastest super-computer. Called the AI Research SuperCluster (RSC), it’s being built society today. n
to amplify the company’s next generation of AI, because only AI is going to be intelligent and
fast enough to handle the vast amounts of data being produced. RSC is designed to learn For more information contact
from trillions of datasets across languages, texts, cultures, images and video so it can handle www.turrito.com

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