102. Wendy Foster - AI ethics as a user experience challenge

Towards Data Science

AI ethics is often treated as a dry, abstract academic subject. It doesn’t have the kinds of consistent, unifying principles that you might expect from a quantitative discipline like computer science or physics.

But somehow, the ethics rubber has to meet the AI road, and where that happens — where real developers have to deal with real users and apply concrete ethical principles — is where you find some of the most interesting, practical thinking on the topic.

That’s why I wanted to speak with Wendy Foster, the Director of Engineering and Data Science at Shopify. Wendy’s approach to AI ethics is refreshingly concrete and actionable. And unlike more abstract approaches, it’s based on clear principles like user empowerment: the idea that you should avoid forcing users to make particular decisions, and instead design user interfaces that frame AI-recommended actions as suggestions that can be ignored or acted on.

Wendy joined me to discuss her practical perspective on AI ethics, the importance of user experience design for AI products, and how responsible AI gets baked into product at Shopify on this episode of the TDS podcast.

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Intro music:

- Artist: Ron Gelinas

- Track Title: Daybreak Chill Blend (original mix)

- Link to Track: https://youtu.be/d8Y2sKIgFWc

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Chapters:

- 0:00 Intro

- 1:40 Wendy’s background

- 4:40 What does practice mean?

- 14:00 Different levels of explanation

- 19:05 Trusting the system

- 24:00 Training new folks

- 30:02 Company culture

- 34:10 The core of AI ethics

- 40:10 Communicating with the user

- 44:15 Wrap-up