The "Extreme Vetting Initiative" is a new idea that officially informs us that the Trump administration does not understand technology, or does not think exactly what it may cause or thinks and does not care.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent us a letter last June outlining an initiative to "create a application AI that will be able to automate, centralize and streamline the current process of evaluating” immigrants who wish to enter US soil.
According to the letter, ICE's current methodology does not provide sufficient “reliable information of high value for further investigations” as they come from “American immigration lawyers or from the federal courts”.
Extreme Vetting Initiative: AI of Digital Discrimination
ICE officials, in short, would like someone in tech to create a machine learning application that collects information they can use for prosecutions or refusal entry to immigrants.
Extreme Vetting Initiative: In a nutshell, the service gives us the definition of a biased AI.
Η εφαρμογή αυτή πιθανώς θα μπορούσε να διαθέτει ένα δίκτυο βαθιάς μάθησης ικανό να δημιουργεί συσχετισμούς μεταξύ διαφορετικών δεδομένων. Προκειμένου να εκπαιδευτεί ένα τέτοιο δίκτυο, θα μπορούσαν να χρησιμοποιηθούν δεδομένα από το DHS (Υπουργείο Εσωτερικής Ασφάλειας) ή του ICE. Και οι δύο services they have data from people targeted by every secret service (and more), regardless of who evaluated them and by what criteria.
A group of distinguished scientists and engineers 54 sent today a different letter to the Department of Homeland Security requesting to abandon the plan with AI for the examination of migrants. In their letter they state:
"Simply put, there are no computational methods that provide reliable or objective estimates of the characteristics that ICE seeks to measure.
"As far as we know, there is no machine capable of determining whether an individual is likely to commit a crime, nor is there any AI that can determine a person's intentions through the collection of data from social media."
An article by ProPublica (Machine Bias), who was a finalist for Pulitzer, says:
“There is software that usesacross the country to predict future criminals. And it's biased against black people.
So it would be reasonable to believe that creating a similar AI that can decide if a person can be allowed to enter the country is not much different from biased software that decides harsher sentences for blacks. "
Let us mention that among the 56 scientists and researchers who signed the letter to DHS is a mix of academics and experts from companies such as Google and Microsoft.
IBM said at The Hill:
We have clarified our values. We are faced with discrimination and we will not do any work to develop a register of Muslim Americans.
So after public placement, it's very likely that IBM is not going to help the US government.
But no technology company should allow a system that will lead to the discrimination of people. The use of AI that can marginalize and violate civil rights is contrary to the very idea of research and progress.