How science fiction can save us from bad technology

The short film Slotterbots depicts a near future in which a swarm of micro-drones killed thousands of people for their political beliefs. It quickly went viral in November 2017 by academics and activists warning of the dangers of advanced artificial intelligence (AI), which to date has been viewed more than three million times. It helped public debate on the future of autonomous weapons and put pressure on diplomats meeting on the UN Convention on Traditional Weapons.

But such a speculative science fiction story is not useful to attract attention. Those designing and building advanced technology can use stories to consider the results of their work and ensure that it is used for good. And we think that such "science fiction prototypes" or "design fiction" can help prevent human biases from doing their work in new technology, which can further inflame society's prejudices and injustice.

A bias may give rise to an arbitrary preference of some categories (outcomes, people, or ideas) over others. For example, some people may be biased against hiring women for executive jobs, whether they are conscious of it or not.

Technology built around data recording of such bias can replicate the problem. For example, recruitment software designed to select the best CV for a particular task can be programmed to look for characteristics that reflect subliminal bias toward men. In which case, the algorithm would support men's CVs. And it's not theoretical - it actually happened for Amazon.

Designing algorithms without considering the potential negative effects is more important than doctors "writing about the benefits of a given treatment and completely ignoring the side effects, no matter how severe they may be."

Some tech firms and researchers are trying to tackle the issue. For example, Google formulated a set of ethical principles to direct the development of AI. And UK academics have launched an initiative called Not-Equal which aims to encourage greater fairness and justice in the design and use of technology.

The problem is that, publicly, companies only give a positive vision of the possible consequences of adjacent technologies. For example, driverless cars are often portrayed as cost effective by all issues of our transportation, from the growing dangers of cyberbaitaxes or ignoring the fact that they encourage people to walk less or ride bicycles.

The difficulty in understanding how digital technologies work, especially those driven by heavy algorithms, makes it difficult for people to have a complex and comprehensive view of issues. This situation creates tension between positive statements and the vague suspicion that the technologies around us are inherent to some degree of bias. This is where we think that one can hear a story through narrative literature.

Stories are a natural way of thinking about possibilities and complex situations, and we've been listening to them throughout our lives. Science fiction can help us speculate on the impact of near-term technologies on society as a slotterbot. It may also include social justice issues, such as the exclusion of digital innovation from certain groups, such as refugees and migrants.

Future disclosure (possible)

Design narrative stories provide a new way for designers, engineers and futurists (among others) to think about the impact of technology from a human point of view and relate it to future potential needs. With a mix of logic and imagination, design can reveal aspects of fiction as to how technology can be adopted and used, initiating conversations about its future changes.

For example, the short story "crime-sourcing" suggests that if AI could use mob information and criminal databases to find out if someone could commit murder. Researchers found that because the database was full of people from minority ethnic groups who, for social reasons, were statistically likely to be reactivated, the "crime-sourcing" model had a greater impact on minorities than whites. Was likely to be more suspicious than.

You don't have to be a talented writer to produce design fiction or make a clever film. Card and storyboard-related brainstorming activities have been used to help develop design fiction and the storytelling process. Creating workshops that use tools of this type enables more engineers, entrepreneurs and policy makers to use this method of evaluation.And making publicly available work will help uncover potential gases in technologies before they affect society.

Encouraging designers to create and share more stories in this way will ensure that the new technology will not only present a positive picture, nor a negative or dystopian one. Instead, people will be able to appreciate both aspects happening around us.