Kashyap

Kashyap is a high school student and chapter director at Encode Justice, an international coalition mobilizing youth for human and civil rights in the age of artificial intelligence. We chatted with him about his involvement in Encode Justice and why it’s critical to consider ethical AI from a youth perspective.

What is your name, age and occupation?
My name is Kashyap and I serve as a chapter director at Encode Justice, an international coalition mobilizing youth for human and civil rights in the age of artificial intelligence. In this role I engage in political advocacy efforts that have taken me to Capitol Hill to lobby congressional offices in person, as well as oversee and spearhead a cohort of 40+ chapters across the world.

I became involved with Encode Justice last January after I was misidentified by facial recognition technology at my high school. After discussing the experience with a family friend, I came to know about Encode Justice and the work they were doing, the specific bills and campaigns they were lobbying for. I started off as the Illinois chapter lead where I looked over Illinois operations and political advocacy campaigns and was eventually promoted to global chapter director.

Are you finding that you’re able to connect with many other students through the work that you’re doing with Encode Justice?
Yes. Since I joined Encode Justice, I’ve developed such strong connections with students across the world. Some mornings I’ll wake up and meet with the Korea chapter, next day I’ll be meeting with the Egypt chapter, or students from India. And that same afternoon, we’ll have the chance to meet with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. So the opportunities at Encode Justice truly are incredible and very unique… being able to work with students of various languages has really taught me how to connect with people from different regions. Some of us have only known democracy and others have lived under the boots of authoritarianism; it’s a huge honor to meet these people and learn about their backgrounds.

When it comes to technology, why is it especially important for young people to do this kind of work?
Personally I think that it’s really important for young people to get involved with this work because we’re the ones who are going to be dealing with these types of technologies for years to come. We’re also using technology the most; we’ve grown up with social media and deep fakes, facial recognition systems that are all around us and are used as a “be all end all” solution to everything that happens… during the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have been using facial recognition thermal scanners and imaging to scan faces and make sure masks are being worn. In response to school shootings – once again – facial recognition systems have been integrated and implemented within the systems to track who comes into the school. Such technology being used as a response to societal issues poses a huge threat to not only our constitutional and civil rights but also runs the risk of misidentification.

People often say that Congress is technologically illiterate. Since many of them are well into their fifties and sixties, they’re not fully aware of the biases and implications within these automated technologies. That’s why the work Encode Justice does is so important; meeting with these lawmakers and running demos, explaining biased algorithms, why facial recognition technology disproportionately harms marginalized communities. We need to confront these issues from a youth and political advocacy perspective; how a coalition of youth activists can influence policy-making and pass specific legislation to overall improve the ethicality of such technology.

It’s interesting that the way you’re able to connect with different chapters of Encode Justice – which combats bias in technology – is through the use of technology itself; can you talk about how technology can be utilized to connect with those around the world?
Definitely. At Encode Justice we always champion that technology, algorithms – they’re not inherently bad, impacting us in a negative way. Without technology and the resources we have, I wouldn’t be able to connect with people in Korea, Egypt or India; it wouldn’t be possible. In our work we use technology like Zoom or Slack every day to communicate globally. We sometimes say that COVID-19 was a blessing in disguise for Encode Justice; we were founded during the pandemic and that’s how we were able to expand the movement globally. So technology can be used to form relationships online, to start movements together. There are many advantages to technology, but it’s so important to utilize it to move us forward instead of pulling us back.

What changes do you think the tech industry needs to make in order to mitigate harm?
There are two main changes the technology industry needs to make. The first is to diversify the tech workforce, to make sure the people who are actually coding the algorithms are reflective and representative of the entire United States; instead of just white men,we want all races and genders to be included, because all values and perspectives should be represented. When we have more people of color, more marginalized groups and communities represented in the tech force, we can then see the technology itself becoming more and more accurate.

We also need to diversify the actual data sets, by which the algorithms within technology are driven. For example, algorithms in the US criminal justice system are trained on historical data sets that represent disproportionate policing and incarceration of communities of color. Because Black people are overrepresented in mugshot data, such algorithms are more likely to identify a Black person as having a higher likelihood of committing a crime. So we need to make sure that these data sets are fair, ethical, accurate and representative of the communities within the United States. There’s the data that’s embedded into the technology, and then there’s the people coding the algorithms… and when both of those are accurate and representative of the entire country, then in turn the algorithms will become more fair.