A slight change of pace, or at least of topic, this week in Techzine Talks on Tour. We sit down with Reggie Townsend, VP of Data Ethics at SAS to talk about the important but not always easy topic of ethics and AI.
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Townsend offers his and SAS’s perspectives on what it means to build AI that truly serves humanity. “My job is to make sure that wherever our software shows up, we help people to thrive,” in his own words.
Bias
The conversation tackles several topics around the ethical component of AI and data in general. One of them is the concept of bias. There is no such thing as an unbiased data set. As Townsend puts it: “Bias exists because humans exist.” The real question isn’t about eliminating bias entirely but distinguishing between harmful bias and purposeful representation.
Synthetic data
Another topic we discuss with Townsend is the use of synthetic data. This can be seen as both promising and potentially problematic. While it can fill crucial gaps in fields like clinical trials where finding enough participants with specific conditions is challenging, Townsend cautions against overreliance, noting the risk of creating self-referential systems that generate new biases.
Trust
A discussion about ethics, AI and data almost always touches the concept of trust too. We also discuss this at some length with Townsend. He specifically mentions the trust gap that is very real when it comes to AI. Addressing this requires not just transparency through tools like model cards (which SAS compares to nutrition labels for AI) but improved global literacy about these technologies.
Organizations should start bold
Looking forward, Townsend challenges companies to start bold when it comes to AI, data and ethics. That starts with deciding not to digitize existing problems we have with that. Rather, we should look to address fundamental challenges. Townsend sees various opportunities in healthcare, mental health, but also around the topic of inequality.
Listen to this latest episode of Techzine Talks on Tour now.
Techzine Talks on Tour: season two
We started Techzine Talks on Tour in May of 2024, with the goal of doing at least one episode every two weeks. After 25 episodes in 2024 we were close enough to that target for us to call the first season a good start. That’s what it is, a start, because we’re not done yet. We continue with a second season, with the goal of growing our reach even further. We will once again try and serve up a fresh new episode of Techzine Talks every two weeks.
A big thank you to the people who found us in 2024 already. We hope you continue to listen to Techzine Talks on Tour in 2025. If this is your first encounter with our podcast, there’s much more to come! We hope you enjoy this episode.
Where to find Techzine Talks on Tour?
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Get in touch
We hope you like this new podcast series. If so, please let us know. If you have suggestions on how we can improve, we would like to hear those too. We’re also open to suggestions around specific topics, or specific people that want to appear in an episode of Techzine Talks on Tour. You can find both Coen van Eenbergen and Sander Almekinders on LinkedIn, or you can send an email to info@techzine.eu.