Freedom of speech is being corroded - Rashmi Dube

Transparency, freedom of speech and ethics appear to be slowly corroding away. We see it happening every day, particularly with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as it becomes more embedded in our everyday lives and businesses.

But because it sits in our far peripheral vision, the occurrences are obscured and leave us with a feeling it does not have a direct impact upon what we do, and therefore we unintentionally ignore the actions taken by others.

Of course, there are exceptions. Take the A Level results for example, where it was obvious that the bias of data was having a detrimental effect upon students. With something so visible, it was inevitable that protests were going to take place. Yet I question if there is a danger that we are creating walls around ourselves and unconsciously wandering into a space where we falsely believe we have the full information, and that the information is based upon ethical and diverse thought and information gathering.

It should not be a big ask that steps are taken to ensure the information we are “fed” is not controlled and that we are not “censored” due to deficiencies in data which in turn can form algorithms that has made a decision on what we are presented with.

Yet on the surface it appears those who control technology are controlling our access to the information it provides. As a business owner and a citizen, it is critical that we become more awake to how information is gathered, distributed and the language used.

This week it was reported that Margaret Mitchell, another top researcher at Google who was tasked with working on the AI ethics team, has been fired.

This was in the wake of Timmnit Gebru’s dismissal in December last year, who, like Margaret, was calling for more diversity among the research staff. Gebru’s dismissal led to protests at

Google and two engineers resigning, including David Baker who had worked at Google for 16 years stating: “We cannot say we believe in diversity, and then ignore the conspicuous absence of many voices from within our walls.”

Google’s response was that it was looking to “restore employee trust” – but what about the concerns of the outside world? Google also stated that the current dismissal was on the grounds of violations of code of conduct and security policies.

The incident raises concerns and questions that boards of organisations should be asking themselves, including “are our systems free of bias” to ensure fairer decision-making?

But will the larger corporates be willing to have their procedures externally audited? The need for diversification is nothing new. We have already learnt that much of our daily lives is based upon data which has had a bias.

There is no simple answer to this conundrum because we are only shown a small proportion of what is actually occurring behind the scenes and when those involved raise their voices, they are silenced. What I am left with is asking whether the laws around whistleblowing should be reviewed?

After all, the premise was to ensure there was a path for employees to report wrongdoing that is in the public interest. Are boards doing enough to ensure they understand the use of digital technology? At the end of the day, how free are we in today’s world of information and freedom of thought and speech?

Technological advancements and digital transformation mean most businesses will be undergoing or are undergoing changes where digital information will be key on how they make decisions.

How that information is gleaned will be critical but equally important is how the information is distributed to ensure that we are truly in control of our thoughts and ultimately decisions.