David Van Bruwaene and Fion Lee-Madan are the co-founders of Fairly AI, a Waterloo-Toronto Founder Institute portfolio company. Fairly AI is a tool for organizations to audit their artificial intelligence (AI) systems from across all business units, to eliminate bias, protect privacy, and ensure transparency of automated decisions.
Research into fairness in machine learning is a topic becoming of increasingly greater interest to laypeople and non-technologists, because the implications that “biased” artificial intelligence can have on society are enormous.
For example, if industries like housing, lending, education, or human resources that utilize AI in their decision-making - based on historical data that included variables such as gender, ethnicity, or disability - the AI may learn to replicate that input data’s statistical regularities. If there was a pattern of discrimination in the “input data,” then there will likely be a discriminatory pattern in the “output” data, resulting in machine learning that is not 'fair.'
We have a philosophy where the people, process and technology all need to be taken into a single view, and the information that needs to be managed around very large and complex technologies like machine learning, needs to incorporate the humans who are making decisions…and bringing all of that information into one place so that you can produce an audit trail of all the activities for Legal and internal risk management. It’s a definite need in the emerging technology of artificial intelligence and this is a big opportunity for us to add value and build a business that is going to be apart of the new digital world.
Watch below to see the full-length interview with Fairly AI Co-Founders David Van Bruwaene and Fion Lee-Madan.
Key Topics Include:
- The co-founders' personal journey and startup experience
- What is 'fair' machine learning
- Examples of “unfair” machine learning, and its implications on individuals
- Fairly AI’s platform use cases and customer archetypes
- The company's mission and the future of AI and ML
- Tips and advise for early stage and aspiring startup founders
In a very mature system, the customer will have control over the AI. If we recognize it, we’re going to have AI systems that are less biased than humans. It will be a good thing.
Fairly AI is currently making headway negotiating a round of pre-seed funding, and David and Fion are also open to networking with other founders in this space who need a proof of concept with their AI solutions. To learn more about Fairly AI and how they are fostering greater fairness in the deployment of AI, visit their website here.
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