[Advisors] rightscon declaration from Toronto mtg.

[James Van Leeuwen]

"Inclusion, diversity and equity entails the active participation of, and meaningful consultation with, a diverse community to ensure that machine learning systems are designed and used in ways that respect non-discrimination, equality and other human rights."

This is the closing sentence of the Declaration, with the first and only mention of ‘community’ in any context. 

It perpetuates a counterproductive status quo of advocacy and capacity building from the top down rather than the bottom up.

To be optimally meaningful and effective, the Declaration should revolve around community as the principal form of agency for responding to technological, social and economic change and the opportunities and risks that it presents.

In other words, the Declaration needs to be primarily and explicitly focused on building capacity at the community level, with policy development at the government level in support.

To answer Brian's question, I don’t think it serves TC’s interests to sign the Declaration. 

I do see merit in TC taking a constructive and explicit position on the Declaration, perhaps along the lines of what I've written above… thoughts welcome. 


JvL





> On May 22, 2018, at 11:43 AM, Peter Frampton <pframpton at lefca.org> wrote:
> 
> I too would be reticent!
> (Too often my City promotes itself as a “leader” when in fact we are “laggards”)
> 
> 
> Brian, as always, your points are dead on!
> 
> Peter Frampton
> pframpton at lefca.org <mailto:pframpton at lefca.org>
> 
> 
> 
>> On May 20, 2018, at 8:13 PM, Brian Beaton <brian.beaton at knet.ca <mailto:brian.beaton at knet.ca>> wrote:
>> 
>> Thanks for sharing this one Marita .. I think this is an important
>> beginning document that we might want to consider as a building block
>> instead of just signing onto it .. Maybe I am just adverse to signing onto
>> anything that is labelled as ³The Toronto Declaration² [smiles] .. This
>> document might work for those in that city or wherever the original
>> version comes from but I would hope TC is more representative of all of
>> Canada ..
>> 
>> Some thoughts for everyone¹s consideration ..
>> 
>> * The lack of any reference in this document to the digital divides and
>> realities that exist in Canada between urban and remote/rural communities;
>> infrastructure gaps and realities across the country; access to resources
>> to create and sustain equitable infrastructure; etc are very problematic
>> in this document.
>> 
>> * I am also concerned about the language throughout the document that
>> seems to me to simply continue the type of competitive, white, male
>> dominated aspects of this industry. I think these types of ³declarations²
>> by well-intended folks need to also include recognizing and respecting the
>> work that is necessary to protect the land, water, environment that
>> provides for our survival. Recognizing gender biases in the document might
>> also help me feel better about it ..
>> 
>> * Maybe in my quick scan of this document (I might be wrong here [smiles])
>> but I find this effort to address AI challenges to be very fear-based;
>> i.e. We need to be protected from this unknown entity that industry is
>> utilizing or might be utilizing in the future. I think we need to be doing
>> better as we challenge any misuse of machines by industry to create
>> inequities and problems in our society.
>> 
>> This declaration might be useful in the hands of the right politician who
>> is willing to start creating laws, programs and policies to address AI but
>> as it stands I think it continues to leave many folks in the dark about
>> the challenges ahead of us. I guess my question would be ³how is it in our
>> interest to sign onto something like this document?"
>> 
>> I think I will stop here to see what others think .. Brian
>> 
>> 
>> On 2018-05-20, 2:10 PM, "Marita Moll" <mmoll at ca.inter.net <mailto:mmoll at ca.inter.net>> wrote:
>> 
>>> The Toronto Declaration: protecting the right to equality and
>>> non-discrimination in machine learning systems
>>> 
>>> https://www.accessnow.org/the-toronto-declaration-protecting-the-rights-to <https://www.accessnow.org/the-toronto-declaration-protecting-the-rights-to>
>>> -equality-and-non-discrimination-in-machine-learning-systems/
>>> 
>>> This declaration is open for sign on by organizations. Should TC sign on
>>> to this?
>>> 
>>> Marita
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Advisors mailing list
>>> Advisors at tc.ca
>>> http://victoria.tc.ca/mailman/listinfo/advisors
>> 
>> 
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