On today’s episode, Sam talks with Alice Xiang, global head of AI governance at Sony and lead research scientist for AI ethics at Sony AI, about what it actually takes to put responsible artificial intelligence into practice at scale.
Alice shares how Sony moved early on AI ethics and why governance, not just principles, is now the real challenge as AI spreads across products and workflows. The conversation dives into FHIBE, Sony’s publicly available and ethically sourced benchmark for evaluating bias in computer vision, and why measuring fairness is often harder than fixing it. Along the way, they tackle data consent, “data nihilism,” and the very real risks of deploying biased systems in everyday and high-stakes contexts. Read the episode transcript here.
Guest bio:
As the global head of AI governance at Sony, Alice Xiang leads the team guiding the establishment of AI governance policies and governance frameworks across the company’s business units. She’s also the lead research scientist for AI ethics at Sony AI, which is working on cutting-edge sociotechnical research to enable the development of more responsible AI solutions. Xiang holds a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School, a master’s in development economics from Oxford University, and a master’s in statistics and bachelor’s in economics from Harvard University.
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Today we’re joined by Alice Xiang, Lead Research Scientist at Sony AI, and Global Head of AI Ethics at Sony Group Corporation. In our conversation with Alice, we discuss the ongoing debate between privacy and fairness in computer vision, diving into the impact of data privacy laws on the AI space while highlighting concerns about unauthorized use and lack of transparency in data usage. We explore the potential harm of inaccurate AI model outputs and the need for legal protection against biased AI products, and Alice suggests various solutions to address these challenges, such as working through third parties for data collection and establishing closer relationships with communities. Finally, we talk through the history of unethical data collection practices in CV and the emergence of generative AI technologies that exacerbate the problem, the importance of operationalizing ethical data collection and practice, including appropriate consent, representation, diversity, and compensation, and the need for interdisciplinary collaboration in AI ethics and the growing interest in AI regulation, including the EU AI Act and regulatory activities in the US.
The complete show notes for this episode can be found at twimlai.com/go/637.
For the next four Tuesdays, Verge senior reporter Ashley Carman will explore how artificial intelligence and machine learning are shaping the future of a variety of industries.
In this episode, Ashley explores how AI can be used for product design, but more specifically, for creating fragrances and flavors.
Guests include founder of ScentTronix Fredrick Duerinck, computer scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Saket Navalkha, and Michael Spranger from Sony AI
This podcast was made by producer Liam James, senior audio director Andru Marino, senior reporter James Vincent, and senior reporter Ashley Carman.
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