Re: Bias & History, Near & Far

Thank you Owen and Brandt
of course disclosure is key, and #stratml useful in this respect etc
but not necessarily sufficient in my experience
Bias is not black and white, its very complex (I have been mapping
/tracking very closely)
Just a few quick points


*AI applications should be able to do a pretty good job of inferring values
based upon what people and organizations say and do. *
But they do not do a pretty good job at all, this is the problem, and it
takes an awful lot of
KR and resources to figure

> *In the meantime, services like these can help:  https://personalvalu.es/
> <https://personalvalu.es/> | https://moralfoundations.org/questionnaires/
> <https://moralfoundations.org/questionnaires/> |
> https://www.idrlabs.com/morality/6/test.php
> <https://www.idrlabs.com/morality/6/test.php> | https://principlesyou.com/
> <https://principlesyou.com/> | https://jamesclear.com/core-values
> <https://jamesclear.com/core-values>*
>
Useful and fun thanks, but.... do you realise how these services reflect
the bias of their designers?
The bias detection services are in themselves biased, this is one of the
problems

*As individuals and organizations begin to publish their performance plans
and reports in open, standard, machine-readable format, it will be pretty
easy for AI agents to determine biases, priorities, and effectiveness
(which is why many people and orgs will resist doing so).*

Not at all easy, definitely NON TRIVIAL. In fact, my main critique to
StratML is that it can be

used to declare facts which are not true, If you remember my first
suggestion to stratapp when

chris first demoed it, is that it should have an additional module to
follow up and verify the assertions

Declaring Just the contrary of what they say they do can  also be true of
apps :-)


PDM

> Owen
>
>
> On 1/7/2022 7:10 PM, Paola Di Maio wrote:
>
> Dear Brandt and all
> thanks for reply-
> yes, bias is inevitable, however the consequences of some bias can be more
> harmful/lethal than others, and in pursuit of fairness, bias should be
> mitigated/minimized
> In particular, algorithmic bias can amplify and reinforce harmful bias
> this is the crux of bias in AI >ML issues.
> Question: how can KR mitigate harmful bias?
>
>
> <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=icon> Virus-free.
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>
> On Sat, Jan 8, 2022 at 8:03 AM <brandt@redd.org> wrote:
>
>> Happy New Year to all of you!
>>
>>
>>
>> I’m not familiar with any learning standard that specifically engages
>> with the bias issue. But with the subject at such prominence in the public
>> sphere, that will probably change.
>>
>>
>>
>> At MatchMaker Education Labs, the startup I’m working on, we have to
>> address bias issues because we strive to match competency standards across
>> frameworks – and every framework has a bias. In our debates, we have
>> concluded that bias is inevitable. To be sure, extreme bias is to be
>> avoided but some perspective will always be present. For that reason, we
>> advocate for acknowledging bias and making it explicit.
>>
>>
>>
>> When I read an author’s bio, for example, I naturally look for keywords
>> and background that will indicate that author’s bias. I expect most of you
>> probably do the same. Perhaps when writing our bios, we could be more
>> explicit about such things.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you all!
>>
>> Brandt (Moderate-Right but Classically Liberal with a dash of
>> Libertarianism 😊)
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* Owen Ambur <Owen.Ambur@verizon.net>
>> *Sent:* Thursday, 6 January, 2022 7:36 PM
>> *To:* paoladimaio10@googlemail.com
>> *Cc:* Brandt Redd <brandt@redd.org>; Scott Yates <
>> scott@certifiedcontentcoalition.org>; Carl Mattocks <
>> carlmattocks@gmail.com>; Michael Sessa <michael.sessa@pesc.org>; Larry
>> Fruth <lfruth@a4l.org>
>> *Subject:* Bias & History, Near & Far
>>
>>
>>
>> Happy new year, Paola.  We were with family over the holidays and just
>> returned home this week, whereupon I found that my E-mail client is still
>> routing to my junk folder messages like yours from the W3C listservs.
>>
>> Having scanned the article you cite, I've taken particular note of the
>> concluding sentence: "History classes must begin to use strategies that
>> identify and challenge biases found in textbooks, and develop ethical
>> frameworks based on justice and equality that students and teachers can use
>> to interpret and evaluate American history."
>>
>> As you may know, I'm a bit impatient with entreaties referencing fuzzy
>> concepts like "strategies" and "frameworks" (as well as "democracy") that
>> fail to propose model performance plans, upon which interested stakeholders
>> might take action.  If you are aware of any actual plan(s) to do as
>> Romanowski suggests, I may wish to render it(them) in StratML format.
>>
>> In the meantime, I'm copying Brandt in the event there may be any
>> education standards relevant to this issue and I'm copying Scott since it
>> is unlikely that historical reports can be credible if contemporaneous
>> records are not.  While the victors may (or may not) write history
>> <https://historyofyesterday.com/is-history-written-by-the-victors-here-are-5-examples-of-losers-writing-history-815b4f28e37c>,
>> they most certainly do not have a monopoly on the truth, the whole truth,
>> and nothing but the truth.
>>
>> The about statements for the initiatives the CredWeb CG plans to evaluate
>> are available in StratML format at
>> https://stratml.us/drybridge/index.htm#CWCG
>>
>> I wonder if, for example, Overtone.ai's logic might be applied to
>> historical texts.  They say
>> <https://stratml.us/carmel/iso/OVRTNwStyle.xml#values_>, "Ultimately,
>> this is a journey that goes way, way beyond text based news content. This
>> is about the way in which human beings communicate – about any topic, at
>> any length, using any medium, and with anybody."
>>
>> The education standards identified by Data Standards United work group
>> that Brandt chairs are documented in StratML format at
>> https://stratml.us/drybridge/index.htm#DSU2  Based upon a word-find
>> search of the StratML rendition of the directory
>> <https://stratml.us/carmel/iso/DLSwStyle.xml>, it appears that none of
>> them addresses the issues of "history" or "bias" or "knowledge" per se.  To
>> me, that seems to be an opportunity rather than a problem.
>>
>> All the best you.  Looking forward to learning what we might be able to
>> accomplish together this year.
>>
>> Owen
>>
>>
>>
>> On 12/25/2021 6:24 AM, Paola Di Maio wrote:
>>
>> Hello AI KR CG folks, Ontologers and SW people from all walks of life
>>
>>
>>
>> I have been thinking of some meaningful wishes to send out in relation
>> to AI KR in the context of the Winter festivities.The closes relevant topic
>> that comes to mind is
>>
>>
>>
>> Knowledge Misrepresentation in History
>>
>>
>> https://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/publications/se/6003/600310.html
>>
>>
>>
>> and
>> Bias in Historical Description, Interpretation, and Explanation
>>
>> Debates among historians show that they expect descriptions of past
>> people and events, interpretations of historical subjects, and genetic
>> explanations of historical changes to be fair and not misleading
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Bias-in-Historical-Description%2C-Interpretation%2C-and-Mccullagh/5e9ef86edd2c7b955606ba45fdf981feef713b14
>>
>>
>>
>> When designing intelligent systems, we use knowledge  from various
>> repositories
>>
>> and databases, the quality and validity of which is not always
>> questioned, especially
>>
>> in the case of long term historical perspectives which form the basis for
>> many widely held views.
>>
>>
>>
>> Today, as we celebrate the important and sometimes debated (problematic
>> even as described by some!!!) historical  events surrounding  the birth of
>> JC, we should remember misrepresentation in history, and how
>> misrepresentation is deliberately designed to manipulate history
>>
>> The articles above are mere pointers to the topic  not endorsed nor
>> exhaustive, and intended as mere reading recommendations
>>
>>
>>
>> Let Bias and misrepresentation not spoil the festivities, but  let's
>> remain aware that history does not always warrant celebration and let's
>> remind ourselves, what is there really, to celebrate hoping that everyone
>> gets at least some.
>>
>>
>>
>> Happy and meaningful winter holidays!!
>>
>>
>>
>> In wisdom
>>
>> Paola DM
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>