People can adopt biases from artificial intelligence in their decision-making processes, according to a new study.
New research provides evidence that people can inherit artificial intelligence biases (systematic errors in AI outputs) in their decisions. The study was conducted by the psychologists Lucía Vicente and Helena Matute from Deusto University in Bilbao, Spain.
The astonishing results achieved by artificial intelligence systems, which can, for example, hold a conversation as a human does, have given this technology an image of high reliability. More and more professional fields are implementing AI-based tools to support the decision-making of specialists to minimize errors in their decisions. However, this technology is not without risks due to biases in AI results. We must consider that the data used to train AI models reflects past human decisions. If this data hides patterns of systematic errors, the AI algorithm will learn and reproduce these errors. Indeed, extensive evidence indicates that AI systems do inherit and amplify human biases.
In the series of three experiments conducted by these researchers, volunteers performed a medical diagnosis task. A group of the participants were assisted by a biased AI system (it exhibited a systematic error) during this task, while the control group participants were unassisted. The AI, the medical diagnosis task, and the disease were fictitious. The whole setting was a simulation to avoid interference with real situations.
Source: scitech
