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UNBIASE.ME (updated)
Artificial Intelligence service to fact-check a team’s decisions against their unconscious biases.
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Solution

Unconscious biases (the thoughts and beliefs that are so deep ingrained on our brain, that we don’t realise they exist) affect our decision making every day which, in turn, affects teamwork and the development of solutions (8).

UNBIAS.ME is an AI service that allows Hal (the Jovoto AI Steward System) or any other AI facilitator to fact-check a team’s decisions against their unconscious biases. This allows for a more diverse recruiting as well as committing to a bias-free design process, and, in consequence, to a better product.

With the help of UNBIAS.ME, Hal is prepared to make a personal assessment of each individual (if given the permission) that analyzes all these variables by having a one to one test to identify personal biases based on variables such as previous experiences, cultural background and gender. It does this by noticing the physical symptoms of biases in the team member's behaviors such as language, eye contact, blinking and smiles amongst others (6). It also gathers data with the help of algorithms that identify biased information and points of view (7).

Describe the challenge that the team faces:

It’s the year 2025, and a company has the challenge to recruit a team and develop a prototype for a next-generation home assistant. A product that can easily be affected by biases during its design process.

How can this team overcome their biases in search for a better product?

Briefly describe your solution:

UNBIAS.ME is an AI service that allows Hal (the Jovoto AI Steward System) or any other AI facilitator to fact-check a team’s decisions against their unconscious biases. This allows for a more diverse recruiting as well as committing to a bias-free design process, and, in consequence, to a better product. To do this, UNBIAS.ME uses deep learning processes, real-time machine learning, algorithmic personality detection, voice, image & video recognition & analysis, and natural language generation.

Explain how it improves teamwork and solves the problems we encounter today:

Today, companies have access to a global workforce and user base. This will widely increase in the future. Collaborating with & designing for people from very different backgrounds, can be challenging. Our idea can help make communication and decisions be less biased.

Additionally, the increasing awareness for problems such as sexism, racism, and xenophobia put pressure on companies (9, 10) to deliver biases free products. Our idea can help them respond to that market demand.

Explain how it works in 5 steps:

1: A plug-in is installed on Hal to give him/her the ability to fact-check the team members’ decisions against their unconscious biases. 2: A team member has to make a decision that involves other team members (e.g.: who to recruit next) or a project (e.g.: choosing the name of the product). 3: Hal collects information to analyze individual and group decisions. 4: Hal gives suggestions for improvement. 5: The team decides if they wants to implement the changes.

DID YOU USE ANY STOCK OR THIRD PARTY MATERIAL?

Yes.

IF YES, PLEASE LINK ALL STOCK, FONTS AND CREATIVE COMMONS MATERIAL HERE:

https://pixabay.com/en/connection-fractal-neural-pathways-647206/ https://thenounproject.com/search/?q=team&i=543768 https://thenounproject.com/search/?q=Sergey+Patutin+brain&i=291205

For the other research sources, please see attachment.

Comments

Show older comments (11)
drosioru
drosioru
over 3 years ago

Hi Sara hi Renzo! How are you guys? Congrats for the idea, it's an intriguing premise to start the project, with a really solid basis! I really like the way the team applies human-centred design to solve complex challenges like unconscious biases, which today we consider "normal" (or better said unapproachable). Enabled by technology we will possibly and hopefully change the future scenarios, by making a switch to a more conscious and ethical decision making process. AI is a strong player in this sense, I think your idea has a lot of potential. I'm really curious to see how this idea builds up and grows! Keep it up! Take care! Diana :X

renzovallejo
Renzo Vallejocollaborator
drosioru
over 3 years ago

Hi Diana! great to hear from you! Thank you for the feedback. It's exactly what you said, how can something considered "normal" in the day to day work could change and be affected in the future by technology. Curious to see how ARIA develops too! Un abrazo

drosioru
drosioru
drosioru
over 3 years ago

awesome! I'm sure there's a lot of brainstorming to be put into this and amazing ideas on the table. Good work! best of luck! Diana

sarkar
sarkar
over 3 years ago

I love that sources slide! Good job.

sarkar
sarkar
over 3 years ago

Will Hal be a coach and a teammember at the same time? :-)

saranramos
Sara Ramosowner
sarkar
over 3 years ago

Thank you, Sarkar! and Yes! Hal will be a facilitator and team member as well, picture him as the bias-balance master.

Sara & Renzo

adambcochrane
Adam Cochrane
over 3 years ago

Hey Guys,

Really like the idea! well done for tackling a big problem today - especially in the ambiguous world of Design Thinking. Utilising Hal is a innovative idea to fact check and bais check ideas. My question to you is how? how will hal fact check bais? how will it analyse the many often subtle thinking patterns that go into an idea. How will it define justification of an idea as biased? I am asking these because I believe this could already start to be taught now in so many workshops and would great help outcomes be some much better :)

And maybe a bonus question - Why do you think this problem exists?

Adam

saranramos
Sara Ramosowner
Adam Cochrane
over 3 years ago

Hi Adam,

Great to get your feedback - thank you!

Why this problem exists? We believe the main reason is the lack of awareness of our own preconceived ideas about others and the environment. There are multiple types of biases in our day to day lives: decision-making, belief, and behavioral biases, social biases, memory errors biases. They are neither good or bad, some of them are even considered social skills, but they do affect decision making (http://read.bi/2kSVUvt), which is a crucial part of teamwork. Right now, technology (or how we choose to use it) might be facilitating the opposite of self-awareness in this field (http://bit.ly/2kxC6KC). 2016 introduced to us the concept of filter bubbles that algorithms have created around us. In our opinion, this makes it even more important to be aware of our biases and committed to looking beyond the information that we passively consume.

How to spot biases? This is a tough question and one we are still exploring. There are current projects that help individuals to identify their biases like The Implicit Association Test (IAT) (http://bit.ly/2ky3doN). Also, studies show that some unconscious biases are associated with language and certain behaviors such as eye contact, blinking, and smiles (http://bit.ly/2kqpWrI). And what about data? Algorithms could help identify biased data as well (http://bit.ly/2lPztpr). Hal, if given the permission by the team, of course, could analyze all these variables by having a one to one bias test with each member to identify personal biases based on their previous experiences, could notice visual and chemical changes during discussions, or analyze data around the decisions and information they are creating.

Still lots of things to understand and explore about this topic, but we’re already iterating on this first delivery!

Thanks again for your time!

Sara & Renzo

adambcochrane
Adam Cochrane
Adam Cochrane
over 3 years ago

Hey Sara,

Well said and thank you for the linked articles! I always love a good read and gathering of great resources to share :) Its really interesting the three different strategies you have looked into: Personal, interpersonal and group. I feel like there is so much in these three layers.

What happens if there is a clash between profit/ idea success Vs Bias ?

Adam

renzovallejo
Renzo Vallejocollaborator
Adam Cochrane
over 3 years ago

Hi Adam! Having a bias-free idea clashing with profitability and success is something that could definitely happen. The purpose for UNBIASE.ME is to identify a team's biases and prevent that from affecting the definition and development of an idea. But what happens after that? Perhaps another solution should enter into discussion, one specifically designed for the delivery phase and one that tackles what is currently another big issue in the business world: how to balance the needs of the people, with the needs of the business. Here positive design theory (http://bit.ly/1HWhXnq.) could be a helpful initial road to start exploring this topic. We think in the future, finding a win-win situation for every stakeholder in the whole system will be a critical issue. Thank you for the feedback! it’s definitely food for thought.

Sara & Renzo

adambcochrane
Adam Cochrane
Adam Cochrane
over 3 years ago

Yeah Fantastic point - Your idea is part of a bigger system and process the team must journey through - Will you put this into your slide? I believe it might help the judges to contextualise your point of view.

Adam

renzovallejo
Renzo Vallejocollaborator
Adam Cochrane
over 3 years ago

We will Adam! Soon an updated version will be published, thanK you!

Sara & Renzo

Tia
Tia
over 3 years ago

I like the social approach in your idea. And I'm curious about the exact method of the analyze, too. What information about users need AI to analyze their decisions? Personal information from social media, previous experience of decision making, the culture of their countries, maybe information about their families? Such a practice took place at the beginning of the last century. I also suppose, that with the development of this technology, AI as a self-taught analytic could invent more methods. Anyway, this is great idea, and I wish you a good luck:)

saranramos
Sara Ramosowner
Tia
over 3 years ago

Hi Tia! Thank you for your feedback and for taking the time to think about this. I believe we covered your questions on our answer to Adam - would you mind reading above? :)

Sara & Renzo

Tia
Tia
Tia
over 3 years ago

Thank you for the information! Yes, you answered my questions. It would be great to see "user journey" with the rest of the team, of course, if you're planning so:)

renzovallejo
Renzo Vallejocollaborator
Tia
over 3 years ago

Tia, that's a great recommendation, will definitely work on a journey to better explain how unbiase.me works throughout a whole project! thank you!

Sara & Renzo

IonaYood
Ioana Popa
over 3 years ago

Very intresting idea Sara & Renzo! I think it would be also very intyeresting a synergy between your idea and "Flow work" idea, in the sense of existing kind of neurotransmitters between team mates and a computer program, also linked to special glaces or hollografic sistem, being capable to spot the cleaned idea, but in the same time, to create layers spotting the biases from different fields, which could be hide or unhide, in order to give the proper deepness of the final idea. Good luck with the competition!

saranramos
Sara Ramosowner
Ioana Popa
over 3 years ago

Hi Ioana! Thanks for taking the time to give us feedback. Is the idea you're referring to the one that facilitates sketching and brainstorming among teams with a 'pen' that writes in the air? I thought that idea was great but didn't make the connection with ours! Thanks for the tip, we'll explore that angle :) Good luck!

Tia
Tia
over 3 years ago

Congratulations, team! Well done:)

saranramos
Sara Ramosowner
Tia
over 3 years ago

Thank you, Tia! :)

juanpabo2
Juan Pablo Cruz
over 3 years ago

Congrats team! great job!

saranramos
Sara Ramosowner
Juan Pablo Cruz
over 3 years ago

Thank you, Juan! :)

joanaf
joanaf
over 3 years ago

congratsss team ;-))

renzovallejo
Renzo Vallejocollaborator
joanaf
over 3 years ago

Thank you Joana!

joyleen
joyleen
over 3 years ago

Congratulations Team!!

renzovallejo
Renzo Vallejocollaborator
joyleen
over 3 years ago

Thank Joyleen!

orangerender
Iván Santiago
over 3 years ago

Interesting work, team! Very clever.

saranramos
Sara Ramosowner
Iván Santiago
over 3 years ago

Hi Iván! Thank you for your feedback. Watch this space - we're improving the idea this week. :)

orangerender
Iván Santiago
Iván Santiago
over 3 years ago

Sure, I'll stay tuned. Keep the good work up =)

demonietto
demonietto
over 3 years ago

Dear team love the idea and presentation!!!

cheers

saranramos
Sara Ramosowner
demonietto
over 3 years ago

Hi there! Thank you :)

itinerantarchi
Breanna Faye
over 3 years ago

Really interesting conceptually! I feel like it could be taken in many different directions - for hiring purposes, keeping teams in check like you mentioned, and also just choosing who works on a project. I think it would be good to also explore how the potential setbacks and challenges of this technology - such as, if workers or applicants begin to start to worry or work in fear of having their biases exposed. Sometimes this happens in the way that people (genders, races, backgrounds) who are often heard more than others, might become apprehensive to comment or to apply to things at all, to be vocal in fear of taking away someone elses spotlight/voice who might be heard less. This can have both inherently good and bad effects - would love to see an exploration of how the AI of this technology tackles workers being AWARE that they are being tracked/monitored for biases.

:)

prodans
Sabin Prodan
over 3 years ago

Quite an interesting idea (btw congrats for the halftime award). Actually, it reminded me of a short video about biases - http://bigthink.com/videos/cognitive-biases-101-with-peter-baumann. I didn't have the focus to go through all the debate that took place here, but while you use the term bias in a negative way, I am on Peter Baumann side when he describes positive and negative biases. Having said that, I hope that UNBIAS.ME would make the difference between the different types of biases, or at the end of the day, the team will unplug this piece of technology.

Congratulations for a very nice detailed presentation and best of luck!

Mariya_
Mariya_
over 3 years ago

Interesting concept, team! :)

Pavlina_K
Pavlina_K
over 3 years ago

Great concept! Good luck team! :)

Tia
Tia
over 3 years ago

Great result, team! Congrats!:)

saranramos
Sara Ramosowner
Tia
over 3 years ago

Thank you, Tia!! Congrats for your prizes as well! See you around :D

celinacabral
Celina Cabral
over 3 years ago

Congrats team!!! great job!!!! :D

saranramos
Sara Ramosowner
Celina Cabral
over 3 years ago

Obrigada, Celina! :D

joyleen
joyleen
over 3 years ago

Congrats!!

saranramos
Sara Ramosowner
joyleen
over 3 years ago

Thank you so much! :)

orangerender
Iván Santiago
over 3 years ago

Congrats, team!!!

saranramos
Sara Ramosowner
Iván Santiago
over 3 years ago

Thanks, Iván!! :)

joanaf
joanaf
over 3 years ago

congratsss team ;-)

saranramos
Sara Ramosowner
joanaf
over 3 years ago

Thank you Joana!! :D