Researchers seek to reduce harm to multicultural users of voice assistants

2024/07/15 Leave a comment

Interesting analysis:

Users of voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant know the frustration of being misunderstood by a machine.

But for people who may lack a standard American accent, such miscommunication can go beyond simply irritating to downright dangerous, according to researchers in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) in Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science.

In a new study published in the Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, HCII Ph.D. student Kimi Wenzel and Associate Professor Geoff Kaufman identified six downstream harms caused by voice assistant errors and devised strategies to reduce them. Their work won a Best Paper award at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2024).

“This paper is part of a larger research project in our lab looking at documenting and understanding the impact of biases that are embedded in technology,” Kaufman said.

White Americans are overrepresented in most datasets used to train voice assistants, and studies have shown that these assistants are far more likely to misinterpret or misunderstand Black speakers and people with accents or dialects that vary from standard American.

Earlier researchers tended to look at this problem as a technical issue to be overcome, as opposed to a failure that has repercussions on the user, Kaufman said. But having speech misunderstood, whether by a person or a machine, can be experienced as a microaggression.

“It can have effects on self-esteem or your sense of belonging,” Kaufman said.

In a controlled experiment last year, Kaufman and Wenzel studied the impact that error rates by a voice assistant had on white and Black volunteers. Black people who experienced high error rates had higher levels of self-consciousness, lower levels of self-esteem and a less favorable view of technology than Black people who experienced low error rates. White people didn’t have this reaction, regardless of error rate.

“We hypothesize that because Black people experience miscommunication more frequently, or have more everyday experience with racism, these experiences build up and they suffer more negative effects,” Wenzel said.

In the latest study, Wenzel and Kaufman interviewed 16 volunteers who experienced problems with voice assistants. They found six potential harms that can result from seemingly innocuous voice assistant errors. These included emotional harm as well as cultural or identity harm caused by microaggressions.

They also included relational harm, which is when an error leads to interpersonal conflict. A voice assistant, for instance, might make a calendar entry with the wrong time for a meeting or misdirect a call.

Other harms include paying the same price for a technology as other people even though it doesn’t work as well for you, as well as needing to exert extra effort—such as altering an accent—to make the technology work.

A sixth harm is physical endangerment.

“Voice technologies are not only used as a simple voice assistant in your smartphone,” Wenzel said. “Increasingly they are being used in more serious contexts, for example in medical transcription.”

Voice technologies also are used in conjunction with auto navigation systems, “and that has very high stakes,” Wenzel added.

One person interviewed for the study related their own hair-raising experiences with a voice-controlled navigation system. “Oftentimes, I feel like I’m pronouncing things very clearly and loudly, but it still can’t understand me. And I don’t know what’s going on. And I don’t know where I’m going. So, it’s just this, this frustrating experience and very dangerous and confusing.”

The ultimate solution is to eliminate bias in voice technologies, but creating datasets representative of the full range of human variation is a perplexing task, Wenzel said. So she and Kaufman talked to the participants about things voice assistants could say to their users to mitigate those harms.

One communication repair strategy they identified was blame redirection—not a simple apology, but an explanation describing the error that doesn’t put the blame on the user.

Wenzel and Kaufmann also suggest that voice technologies be more culturally sensitive. Addressing cultural harms is to some extent limited by technology, but one simple yet profound action would be to increase the database of proper nouns.

“Misrecognition of non-Anglo names has been a persistent harm across many language technologies,” the researchers noted in the paper.

A wealth of social psychology research has shown that self-affirmation—a statement of an individual’s values or beliefs—can be protective when their identity is threatened, Kaufman said. He and Wenzel are looking for ways that voice assistants can include affirmations in their conversations with users, preferably in a way that isn’t obvious to the user. Wenzel is currently testing some of those affirmations in a follow-up study.

In all these conversational interventions, the need for brevity is paramount. People often use voice technologies, after all, in hopes of being more efficient or able to work hands-free. Adding messages into the conversation tends to work against that goal.

“This is a design challenge that we have: How can we emphasize that the blame is on the technology and not on the user at all? How can you make that emphasis as clear as possible in as few words as possible?” Wenzel said. “Right now, the technology says ‘sorry,’ but we think it should be more than that.”

Source: Researchers seek to reduce harm to multicultural users of voice assistants

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Tunisian historian tackles the complexities of 12 centuries of ‘Slavery in the Muslim World’

2024/07/15 Leave a comment

Of interest:

In a dense but succinct new work, Tunisian historian M’hamed Oualdi takes the complex subject of slavery head on, while also examining contemporary traumas.

In his tome L’Esclavage dans le Monde Musulman (Slavery in the Muslim World), published in French by Amsterdam, M’hamed Oualdi, a professor at Sciences Po Paris says he wants to “cut through the endless controversy surrounding this supposedly taboo subject”.

Oualdi, also an associate professor of history and Near Eastern studies at Princeton University in the US, knows his subject inside out, having already published two books and a research project on slavery in the Muslim world.

First, in 2011, came Esclaves et Maîtres (Slaves and Masters), a study of the mamluks, mercenaries and slaves of European origin who converted to Islam and served the governors of the Ottoman province of Tunis from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

Then, in 2020 he published Un Esclave Entre les Empires (A Slave Between Empires), which looks at the transition from Ottoman tutelage to French colonisation in Tunisia, based on the life of one of the last mamluks of Tunis, Husayn, between the 19th and 20th centuries.

In the meantime, Oualdi has also published a research project on the narratives of slaves (white prisoners, Black slaves and Ottoman servants) during the abolition era in 19th-century North Africa.

His work is part of a growing interest in the issue throughout the Arab world, including literature, cinema, academic works and museums. So while the “Islamic” slave trade is still subject to censorship under certain authoritarian political regimes and is still relatively neglected by publishers and the media, it is no longer a taboo subject.

Ideological and political instrumentalisation

Slavery in the Muslim World is broader in scope but still concise (237 pages), covering the first slave trades at the end of the 7th century and post-slavery trauma in Arab and Muslim societies. Above all, however, it is the work of a historian, a “rigorous clarification” of the subject, well-documented to quell any myths or other ideological and political issues.

Oualdi shows that the clichés about the “Islamic slave trade” are a way “for certain writers” to exonerate European slavery (particularly the Atlantic slave trade) by pointing the finger at “Muslim slavery”.

Two specific points support the historian’s argument. First is the very notion of the “Eastern slave trade” or “Islamic slave trade”, which in reality encompasses disparate trades (the Saharan slave trade, the East African slave trade on the Swahili coast, and the Red Sea slave trade), and which fails to take into account the enslavement of Muslims by other Muslims (Berbers, Circassians, Shiites) within the Muslim worlds, but which is also linked to global trade.

Millions of victims

This homogenisation leads to a second point: the famous battle of statistics between the “Islamic slave trade” (which spanned more than 12 centuries) and the Atlantic slave trade (four centuries). French historian Olivier Grenouilleau has put forward the figure of 17 million victims of the Eastern slave trade compared with 12 million slaves who were victims of the Atlantic slave trade, while claiming to want to avoid falling into a “competition of remembrance”, but suggesting all the same that, after all, Westerners are less evil than Arabs.

While there were indeed millions of victims on both sides, precise estimates are difficult to obtain. M’hammed Oualdi argues that the “slave trade organised by Europeans in the Indian Ocean” has never been added to the Atlantic slave trade.

However, the author does not play down the Eastern slave trade. Rather, he aims to show the complexity and heterogeneity of this practice, which originated in different regions and was regulated differently according to political and sociological systems and Islamic legal schools of thought.

White slaves and ‘racialisation’

Oualdi also identifies three main types of slaves in the Muslim world:

  • Domestic servants
  • Concubines (or so-called royal slaves)
  • Agricultural slaves

It was among the “royal slaves” that the highest number of Europeans or Caucasians who had converted to Islam and joined the Ottoman harems as well as the administration and military apparatus (mamluks) could be found.

Some of these mamluks had extraordinary destinies: there was the concubine who became the mother of a sultan and a sultana herself (Chajarat ed-Or, who ruled Egypt and Syria in the 13th century); or those who became sultans in medieval Egypt. Via this group, Oualdi also examines the origins of “racialisation”, in which white slaves – very much in the minority – were differentiated from Black slaves, who were in the majority.

While reviewing at length the process that led to the abolition of slavery, both by Muslims and Europeans (which in part fuelled their imperialist conquests), the historian studies the traumas left by slavery, and its persistence, in Arab-Muslim societies. He establishes a direct link between contemporary anti-Black racism and slave trade and suggests that the slave trade is one of the sources of the region’s political authoritarianism. It’s a fascinating, informative and uncompromising read.

 L’esclavage dans le monde musulman (The Slave Trade in the Arab-Muslim World), by M’hamed Oualdi, published in French by Amsterdam editions, 256 pages, €19).

Source: Tunisian historian tackles the complexities of 12 centuries of ‘Slavery in the Muslim World’

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Canadian Immigration Tracker- May 2024 update

2024/07/13 Leave a comment

Highlights

Permanent Residents increased but percentage of TR2PR slipped to 53 percent of all Permanent Residents. 

Asylum claimants stable at about 16,000 per month.

Study permit applications increased (seasonal). Study permit web interests have declined by over 25 percent the past year, January to June).

IMP numbers have increased while TFWP numbers have decreased save for those with LMIA.

Citizenship numbers increased. 

Slide 3 has the overall numbers and change.

https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/canadian-immigration-tracker-key-slides-may-2024-pdf/270213627

Filed under Citizenship, Immigration Tagged with , ,

Business acumen is the antidote to the political backlash against migration

2024/07/13 Leave a comment

Interesting initiative, similar to Talent Beyond Boundaries:

…Some of those businesses, including Saint-Gobain, Colas, Purolator, Lafarge and Fragomen, are already participating in a new partnership launched by the France Canada Chamber of Commerce (Ontario), or FCCCO, this past February.

Project Starfish – the initiative’s name is a nod to returning stranded starfish to the sea – is working with the IOM to provide companies with access to globally displaced talent. Migrants, meanwhile, benefit from job opportunities that allow them to immediately contribute to the Canadian economy. The workers, who originally hail from Djibouti, Costa Rica and Mexico, only arrive in Canada after securing a job and a work permit.

“Virtual Interviews and recruitments are ongoing by companies,” said Riva Walia, founding managing director of FCCCO, adding that 52 candidates were being considered for various jobs as of last week.

Ms. Walia and Sanjay Tugnait, president and chief executive of Fairfax Digital Services, are also conducting a roadshow to solicit more corporate participation in Project Starfish.

“Canada is the best in class when it comes to matching work force needs with a migration policy,” Ms. Pope said. “And that gives Canada a competitive edge compared to other countries. That will become more and more relevant as we see these demographic trends become more and more acute.”…

Source: Business acumen is the antidote to the political backlash against migration

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Avi Benlolo: University of Windsor shamefully caves to anti-Israel protesters

2024/07/13 Leave a comment

Sigh….. But rather than a preference for pro-Israel or pro-Palestine students, preference should be given to those with a more balanced approach to any number of issues, whether in social media or elsewhere:

…The university could have employed a multitude of measures to clear the encampment without succumbing to the terms set by radical students. It could have immediately dismantled the encampment, as York University did. It could have filed for a court injunction without agreeing to any terms, as the University of Toronto did. It could have launched a lawsuit against the organizers, as the University of Waterloo did, resulting in the removal of the encampment. Or it could have finally convinced law enforcement to clear out the encampment, as McGill University did.

All these measures and more were available to the University of Windsor. Instead, it appears to have signed a perilous agreement that undermines academic freedom and Canadian values. Universities are supposed to be about preparing young people for the workforce. UWindsor has promised to protect students involved in the encampment. But in the real world, where these pro-Palestinian students will one day seek employment, such protections will vanish.

In New York this week, a top law firm (Sullivan & Cromwell) announced it’s hiring policy will exclude anyone involved in anti-Israel campus protests. I would encourage all companies to adopt similar policies, lest they too fall victim to an encampment in their boardrooms. Preference should be given to hiring pro-Israel university students. They are courageous defenders of democracy and need our support and encouragement.

Source: Avi Benlolo: University of Windsor shamefully caves to anti-Israel protesters

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Recent immigrants suffer in Canada’s weakening job market

2024/07/13 Leave a comment

Of note:

Newer immigrants are struggling as the Canadian labour market goes through a rough patch.

The unemployment rate for recent immigrants – those who became permanent residents within the last five years – was 12.6 per cent in June, an increase of four percentage points from a year earlier, according to Statistics Canada. (All figures in this piece are three-month moving averages, unadjusted for seasonality.)

It’s a very different story for those born in Canada. Their unemployment rate was 5.5 per cent last month – up slightly from 5 per cent in June, 2023.

The gap in jobless rates between these groups is the largest since August, 2014.

The labour market has softened over the past two years year as companies struggle with higher interest rates, making them more hesitant to hire. At the same time, the Canadian population has soared – largely because of strong immigration – and led to an infusion of job seekers….

Source: Recent immigrants suffer in Canada’s weakening job market

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More than half of recent Senate appointments have ties to Liberal Party

2024/07/13 Leave a comment

Of note. Haven’t done a political linkages analysis but the table below contrasts senate appointments by PM from a diversity perspective:

Despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to rid the Senate of partisanship and patronage, most of the senators appointed to the upper house over the past year have ties to the Liberals.

Since July 2023, Trudeau has nominated 12 senators, eight of whom — 66 per cent of the total — have donated money to the federal Liberals or have worked with the federal party or a provincial Liberal party.

That’s a significant jump in the number of Senate appointees with partisan Liberal ties — up from about 30 per cent of all senators appointed between January 2019 and July 2023.

“I think it is a disturbing trend,” said Emmett Macfarlane, a political science professor at the University of Waterloo who wrote a draft document that became the basis for the advisory committee on Senate appointments.

“The appointment of the occasional partisan or person with a partisan history is completely, I think, valid,” he said. “What is troubling is to see a slew of partisan appointments, particularly those that match the government stripes. This actually goes against the whole spirit of the reform.”

In 2014, as the Senate was mired in an expenses scandal, then-opposition leader Trudeau expelled senators from the Liberal caucus.

As prime minister, he created an independent and nonpartisan advisory board for Senate appointments in 2016. Since then, he’s named only senators recommended by the board. Trudeau has named more than 80 senators since taking office.

Source: More than half of recent Senate appointments have ties to Liberal Party

Filed under Multiculturalism, Politics Tagged with ,

AI Can Fix Immigration, Low Fertility & Retirements

2024/07/12 1 Comment

While I believe that AI holds great potential, this analysis is overly optimistic in the shorter term. Longer-term, much more likely:

AI-enabled automation may hold the key to solving three major problems: immigration, low fertility rates and retirements. But strangely, automation is not a planned policy solution to these and related problems. Why there were all sorts of problems with how the US federal government handled the Covid 19 pandemic, Operation Warp Speed was not one of them. Should AI-enabled automation receive the same kind of investment priority the vaccine received – instead of how defensively everyone treats “automation”? Remember that Operation Warp Speed “was a public-private partnership initiated by the United States government to facilitate and accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.” Is this a model for investments in AI and automation?

AI & Immigration

For example, instead of making economic arguments for why the US (and other countries) need immigrants, why not sidestep the argument with a massive federal investment in automation designed to contribute directly to economic growth? Is there a public-private partnership opportunity here? Obviously many companies are pursuing automation at breakneck speed. They want to save money and increase profitability by reducing their dependency on humans. Progress is impressive. But the suggestion here is a massive public-private partnership to accelerate and focus automation on the economic holes immigration is intended to fill.

Obviously, there are many reasons why people come to the US and other developed countries. The economic argument is not to diminish any of those motivations. Instead, the hypothesis is that the economic arguments around immigration might be framed very differently than they are today. We know, for example, that many immigrants come to the US to avoid political prosecution, violence and because they want better lives for their families. All good, but the economic arguments that politicians make about the need for more immigration might be influenced by warp speed investments in automation. Of course, since “politicians” are heat-seeking missiles to money and power, it’s impossible to know if they’d even entertain arguments that don’t perfectly fit their personal agendas. But that aside, there are opportunities to leverage AI-enabled automation to address some of the economic requirements that immigration might – or might not – satisfy.

AI & Low Fertility Rates

Let’s now look at human reproduction:

“The general fertility rate in the United States decreased by 3% from 2022, reaching a historic low. This marks the second consecutive year of decline, following a brief 1% increase from 2020 to 2021. From 2014 to 2020, the rate consistently decreased by 2% annually.”

(Note that “the fertility rate measures the number of live births per 1,000 women within the childbearing age range, often 15-44 years old.”)

What does this mean?

“A prolonged US total fertility rate this low – specifically, a rate substantially below 2 – would lead to slower population growth, which could in turn cause slower economic growth and present fiscal challenges. While the decline presents a fairly new challenge to the United States, other high-income countries have sustained below replacement level fertility for some years now and have attempted policies to mitigate that trend.”

Automation can help mitigate the trends. AI can provide nuanced efficiencies.

Is automation an answer to aging societies? Well, if there’s machine to replace a non-existent human – so long as the human needs to be replaced – is that all bad? All of the worry about aging societies shrinking because of low birth rates can perhaps be relieved through automation.

Retirements

The same argument that applies to low fertility applies to retirements, early or otherwise. What does it matter if someone retires from a job that can be automated?

We’re told that retirements are increasing at a pace never before seen:

“Today, the number of retirees is surging at a remarkable pace, outpacing the influx of new workers. This trend is leading to an unparalleled aging of America’s population, bringing about significant transformations in the workforce, economy, and the global mobility industry.”

Implications?

“The demand for workers continues to be robust, with approximately two job openings available for every unemployed individual. And with more than 75 million baby boomers retiring sooner rather than later, it’s clear that employers will need a strong workforce plan for replacing exiting workers.

“Meeting the workforce gap presents a considerable challenge. Relying solely on Gen X workers is not enough, and many millennials may lack essential work experience. Foreign-born workers could face immigration hurdles, and not all roles are suitable for flexible or remote workers.”

If ever there was a role for automation, this is it.

Automation Policy

I’ve discussed this before:

“Do we need tax preparers? Car salespersons? Loan officers? Automation has only begun, and as more and more employees call it quits, automation may take their place faster than we think. Why wouldn’t Uber want to eliminate their biggest headache – drivers – with autonomous vehicles? Why wouldn’t all companies want to deploy ‘workers’ that work 24/7, never need vacations, never join unions and never get sick? Checkout clerks? Postal workers? Gas station attendants (almost gone now)? And many more.”

Honeywell reports some survey results that focus on robotics:

“The productivity gains that we see from … robotics have increased,” said John Dillon … ‘the technology has gotten better … (and) the cost of not automating has gotten higher.’

“That’s because a warehouse that might typically require 2,000 workers could deploy technologies and warehouse execution software to instead operate with only 200 people.”

Automation may be the answer to many economic problems. In 1982 (!), the government believed in the power of automation through “federal efforts to encourage automation (which included): (1) financial incentives for private sector action; (2) research responsibilities; (3) technology transfer mechanisms; (4) support of engineering education; and (5) the development of standards to facilitate integration of diverse components of automation systems.” But today – 40 years later – here’s the question heard over and over again: “what should the government do about the coming automation apocalypse?”

Automation and its closest friend “AI,” are not the apocalypse. They’re solutions to some tough economic problems the US and developed countries face. Yes, there will be job displacement and perfectly timing the adoption of automation to immigration, fertility rates and retirements is impossible. But the hypotheses should at least be tested. It may be that planned automation can reduce some economic stress — maybe a lot of stress. The technology is ready. The companies are ready. But will the politicians support Operation Automation? Or are they focused on other things?

Source: AI Can Fix Immigration, Low Fertility & Retirements

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Malaysia’s human rights commission to seek royal support to block citizenship law changes

2024/07/12 Leave a comment

Of note:

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia is seeking royal support to block new citizenship laws that it says will render more people in the country stateless.

The commission, commonly referred to by its Malay language acronym Suhakam, is planning to submit a memorandum to the Conference of Rulers by July 16, outlining its objections to proposed legal amendments which have been described as “regressive” and “cruel” by critics.

Amendments to the Federal Constitution related to citizenship matters must have the consent of the Conference of Rulers – a council comprising the nine rulers of the Malay states of Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Perlis, Terengganu, Kedah, Kelantan, Pahang, Johor, and Perak, and the governors of the other four states, Penang, Melaka, Sabah and Sarawak.

One of the changes proposed by the Anwar Ibrahim administration is a long-awaited amendment to finally automatically confer citizenship to children born overseas to Malaysian mothers.

But the new law will not be applied retrospectively, rendering it ineffective for those already born to Malaysian mothers outside the country.

Currently, only children born to Malaysian fathers abroad are automatically conferred Malaysian citizenship.

“We want it to be retrospective,” Suhakam commissioner Ragunath Kesavan, a former Malaysian Bar president, told The Straits Times.

Other proposed amendments are aimed at making it tougher to obtain citizenship, including lowering the age limit of childhood citizenship applications from 21 to 18, removing automatic citizenship for children of permanent residents born in the country, and stripping foreign wives of citizenship if the marriage is dissolved within two years of them becoming Malaysian.

“The amendments are the most regressive constitutional amendments ever brought by any government in Malaysia. They take away the rights of a child,” Mr Kesavan told a rights forum on July 5.

As for foreign wives, he pointed out that people taking up Malaysian citizenship have to give up citizenship in other countries, as holding dual citizenship is not permitted for Malaysians.

“In the first two years of marriage, if you are abused by your husband, you cannot walk out of that relationship,” he said.

“This is why we need to oppose the constitutional amendments.”

Source: Malaysia’s human rights commission to seek royal support to block citizenship law changes

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Ottawa strengthens vetting after officials failed to pass on new human-rights chief’s alias to RCMP, CSIS

2024/07/11 Leave a comment

A possible general rule, avoid appointments to those who have used aliases and, of course, if they have used aliases, check them out. Remember when working in multiculturalism on grants and contribution funding, we were shocked when Minister Kenney’s staff would check social media of those applying. But seeing what they uncovered, recognized the merit of doing so:

…Mr. Dattani disclosed his alias Mujahid Dattani in the process of applying for the role. The federal government’s background check consent form includes a line for applicants to provide any other names they have used.

But the Privy Council Office (PCO), which is responsible for background checks on government appointments to senior positions, says it failed to pass on Mr. Dattani’s alias for security checks to CSIS, the RCMP and the Canada Revenue Agency, which helps with screening.

The PCO also did not search under Mr. Dattani’s aliases using open sources on the internet, before he was appointed. The PCO “regrets its error,” Daniel Savoie, a PCO spokesman, said in a statement Monday.

It also failed to tell the Justice Minister’s office and the Prime Minister’s Office about the aliases….

Source: Ottawa strengthens vetting after officials failed to pass on new human-rights chief’s alias to RCMP, CSIS

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

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