{"id":162323,"date":"2023-12-12T10:17:27","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T09:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=162323"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:05","slug":"we-need-to-recognise-that-ai-systems-are-meant-to-discriminate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2023\/12\/12\/we-need-to-recognise-that-ai-systems-are-meant-to-discriminate\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We need to recognise that AI systems are meant<\/em> to discriminate’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Artificial intelligence comes with a lot of risks, such as discrimination. This is why PhD student Joris Krijger, who researches the ethical aspects of AI, is advocating for a broader perspective on EM\u00a0TV. \u201cI think it\u2019s dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Joris Krijger in conversation with EM TV presenter Feba Sukmana.<\/span><\/p>

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Krijger, PhD student at the Erasmus School of Philosophy, has seen that discrimination due to the use of AI is already common in practice. \u201cI mean examples such as an AI application used for personnel matters at Amazon. The system, used to screen CVs, had been trained with historical data from the last ten years. Based on that data, the AI concluded that women were not suited to technical positions and automatically discarded all female candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Useful tool<\/h2>

According to Krijger, such incidents should not prevent us from using AI at all, but we should be more aware about how AI works. \u201cWe need to recognise that these systems are meant<\/em> to discriminate. We all say that we don\u2019t want algorithms to discriminate, but that is precisely their goal in a statistical sense: to distinguish between data. And they can be a very useful tool, for example to determine who does or doesn\u2019t get a loan and who\u2019s at risk of committing fraud or who isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undesirable patterns in AI systems often originate in training data, which come straight from society. \u201cAnd we don\u2019t have a perfectly fair society.\u201d Krijger called this replication of inequality in systems \u2018dangerous\u2019. \u201cYou\u2019re automating the status quo, which isn\u2019t beneficial for everyone, and thereby making existing inequalities worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legitimate characteristics<\/h2>

Society needs to engage in dialogue on how these systems could be made fairer. These are ethical rather than technical considerations, Krijger argues. \u201cWe need to think ethically and critically about what are legitimate characteristics to use in distinguishing between data.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Krijger, EUR is already working to improve the way in which AI is used. \u201cThe most important step is to acknowledge that it isn\u2019t a strictly technical issue, but that you need structures and processes within an organisation to deal with these ethical considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch the interview with Joris Krijger on EM\u00a0TV below:<\/p>\n

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