Oldfield Consultancy is proud to be named a supplier to the Digital and IT Professional Services framework. We will work with CAPITA to provide capability for defence and government in IT, AI and Technology moving forward. It has been a three year journey to get to this point and the lots we have won showcase our strengths in our area. We look forward to working with the wider ecosystem.
Practitioners face many challenges in AI. By examining multiple government enquiries and undertaking empirical research it has been found that there are a multitude of issues preventing ethical development. From lack of respect of professionals to lack of leadership and competing stakeholder motivations the list is quite long. Read more in the published paper here. Instead of seeing this as a negative we choose to see this as a positive where we can make substantial impact for improvement. One large move forwards is the formation of a practitioner community and accreditation within a professional body dedicated to technology and practitioners.This has culminated in launch of a new professional AI Accreditation that Dr Oldfield launched with the Institute of Science of Technology. Read more here.
Dr Marie Oldfield on definitions of AI, the education and communication gaps with AI, explainable models, ethics in education, problems with audits and legislation, AI accreditation, importance of interdisciplinary teams, when to use AI or not, and harms from algorithms. Listen on all major platforms or here
Dr Marie Oldfield the Director of Oldfield Consultancy has developed, alongside the Institute of Science and Technology AI Special Interest group, an interdisciplinary professional accreditation for professionals in AI and related modelling disciplines. Click to apply. The founding committee consists of Philosophers, Computer Scientists, Academics, Military and Archeologists.The accreditation is available for entry level students to advanced practitioners. During the production of academic papers it was noted that lack of respect for the profession, issues hiring or verifying what skills applicant had or were needed for the job and a general lack of leadership meant that professions in AI related disciplines were not being served by any profession body. In addition disciplines such as psychology, sociology, philosophy, geography etc were not being valued in the creating of robust and ethical AI. Without a relevant set of experts in the room robust and ethical AI cannot be created and negative societal and personal impact is an extremely high risk; in many cases it has been seen to play out in reality. The Institute of Science and Technology has picked up the baton to help practitioners globally. A new, global, profession accreditation, the only one of it’s kind, has been developed in
Technical challenges & Perception: Does AI have a PR Issue? From collecting robust data, to modelling the real world and interpreting output, modelling is a complex undertaking. Increasingly, models have been highlighted that not only disadvantage society but those whom the model was originally designed to benefit. An increasing number of legal challenges around the world illustrate this. A surge of recent work has focussed on the technical but not necessarily the real-world challenges for practitioners. Through two studies we conduct an investigation into perceptionand real-world needs within industry. In study one we re-run the 2019 survey by Holstein et al. to determine differences between practitioner challenges in the UK and USA and we analyse any advancements apparent since the 2019 study. In study two we examinethe perception of users and practitioners towards AI. This study helps to unlock interdisciplinary reasons behind existing challenges.Based on these findings we highlight directions for future research in this area. Click link to read.
Dr Oldfield speaks on Dehumanisation and the future of Technology at the International Conference on AI and the Digital Economy (CADE 2023). You can read the paper here. What is dehumanisation: It is a way to deprive someone of their humanity To make others a target To drive hate It’s used to get groups to buy things to be superior to others. To pit communities online against each other. The aim of dehumanisation is to present a group as being ‘less than’ the self-perceived superior group and to force either increased division to justify an existing belief system, or create a belief system in order to distributed to the population or to force compliance of a perceived inferior group. Algorithms can create echo chambers to satisfy users that they are within a community that agrees with them, thereby reinforcing their beliefs This can affect vulnerable or socially excluded people in a much more negative manner. This widely used technique allows us to be exploited by using our own negativity against us. Think Harry Potter dementors but instead of killing you they are emptying your wallet and using up your time to get money for more of your clicks.
Dr Oldfield Speaks at SPRITE+ on AI, Risk Awareness and Psychological Nudging. Psychological Nudging is a technique used to get people to behave in a certain way. This can be used for good or evil. For example, are you being nudged for the ‘safety of resources’ or for coercive purposes. Do you know you are being nudged? If you log on to the internet, see advertisements or read the paper you are constantly being nudged and influenced. Every ‘topic of the day’ nudges your opinion based on your underlying beliefs and how you see the world. This can reduce or elevate your risk perception that you see in situations – but not necessarily for your own benefit. Psychologists and Philosophers state that updating your beliefs however comes at a great energy cost and once they are set, you are unlikely to change them, no matter how right or wrong they are. So do you really have free will or are you a puppet on a string? As a society humans have put themselves at risk.
Dr Oldfield Publishes Book Chapter on AI and Anthropomorphism Dr Oldfield’s chapter on ‘Anthropomorphism and its impact on the implementation and perception of AI’ will be published within the forthcoming Ethics Press book “Technology, Users and Uses: Ethics and Human Interaction Through Technology and AI”. In May 2021 I gave a presentation to the Royal Geographical Society about AI and the new area of research and Dehumanisation. Here I attach the abstract to pique your interest in advance of my chapter being published. The use of Artificial Intelligence is becoming widespread and as we continue to ask ‘can we implement this’ we neglect to ask ‘should we implement this’. When AI is implemented as a model there are various frameworks and conceptual journeys one should take to ensure a robust model; context is one of the vital parts of this. AI is now expected to make decisions in a wide range of situations, from deciding who gets a credit card to Cancer diagnosis. These decisions affect most, if not all, of society. Even if we do not get a credit card, sharing of our information to multiple systems could result in discrimination in other systems. Therefore, if we do not
Oldfield Consultancy has been working on the new policy and compliance requirements for the new Housing Quality Regulator NHQB. Our Director, Dr Oldfield stated that ” This work is welcomed and is crucial to ensuring the quality of new homes moving forward. It is no secret that, in the past, developers have failed far short of quality standards in building new housing and we hope, moving forward, that the establishment of a new policy and regulator will improve the situation” The New Homes Quality Board (NHQB) is an independent not-for-profit body which was established for the purpose of developing a new framework to oversee reforms in the build quality of new homes and the customer service provided by developers. The framework was introduced in 2022 and has delivered a step change in developer behaviour, a consistently high standard of new home quality and service, and strengthened redress for the purchasers of new-build homes where these high standards are not achieved. The NHQB was formally constituted as a legal entity in January 2021 and the board members were appointed with representatives from consumer bodies, the lending industry, Homes England, independent members, developers and providers of new home warranties, to deliver
Oldfield Consultancy has been contributing to the Mozilla Foundation Research on Algorithmic transparency. This will be presented at there MozFest event. Click to sign up now!