View the San Francisco for Thursday, July 11, 2024
Stanford launched its Human-centered Artificial Intelligence institute five years ago, but it wasn’t until recently that the center’s founders tried to narrow down what they actually meant by “human-centered AI.
” At first, leaving that definition open seemed like a good idea, because it allowed people coming to the institute from different disciplines to explore different directions, said. But more recently, it became clearer the institute needed to have more of a standard definition to guide its overall direction and research efforts, said Landay, who is also a computer-science professor at the university. What he and his colleagues have come up with is that human-centered AI incorporates not just how individual users interact with the technology, but the notion that it could affect a broader community of users and society at large. Their new mission is to offer companies and AI developers concrete ways to bake in that thinking about the broader effects of AI as they design their products. That’s not to say the institute has been sitting idle for the last five years. Since it launched in 2019, Stanford HAI has bulked up its staff to 35 to 40 people; funded the research of some 400 faculty members; signed up a slew of fellows to conduct research and teach classes; convened events that have brought together leading researchers policymakers and investors; and led training sessions for corporate executives and congressional staffers to help them get up to speed on AI.on the university’s campus, The Examiner spoke with Landay about how well AI developers in the tech industry are adhering to human-centered thinking, the dangers of not incorporating that kind of mindset intoJames Landay, co-director of the HAI institute at Stanford: “I’m not worried about headline-grabbing things like AI taking over the world and launching nuclear weapons or stuff like that.” As you look out over the last five years, how would you rate the tech industry on the way it’s incorporated human-centered thinking into the design of its AI products? I don’t see a lot of it. We see a variety of results of companies where they’re not really thinking about this; they’re just pushing out products, whether— where they might try but they’ve had some missteps — to a company like Microsoft, which I actually think they’ve done a good job in thinking about a lot of these things. On the other hand, they push stuff out, because they want to be first or lead the market. Some of them have the right teams and notions about it. But sometimes the market overtakes the decision making. Companies who treat this, responsible AI, like a separate function, you have some team check it near the end and say, ”Hey, are we good to go?” — which is often how they think about privacy and security — that doesn’t work. Because at that point, there’s a lot of market pressure to release things, and it’s too late. When you can integrate that kind of thinking into the actual teams that have technologists, but also have designers and social scientists and other people different skills, some of the problems are caught earlier on. Those people have social capital, they’re part of the team. And they have better influence to change the direction. What are the dangers of AI developers not paying attention to the broader social impacts of the technology? First of all, I’m not worried about headline-grabbing things like AI taking over the world and launching nuclear weapons or stuff like that.Because there’s nothing I’ve seen in the technology and knowing what it’s built on that that just throwing more data and processing leads to some super-intelligence. It’s really not capable. It requires new architectures that include a lot more things that these models just cannot do. It’s not to say that will never happen. But I’m talking about that 30-, 50-, 100-year never kind of thing. It will require big scientific leaps that have not occurred and are not being worked on by most of these companies. A lot of that talk is purely science fiction and is, in the worst case, meant to distract people from the real harms that are occurring right now, which I often refer to as the “triple D.” So, disinformation — this is a thing that these models could be very easily trained to do. Another area that we know is already going on is the second D — deepfakes. We see that, whether it wasbeing used against young girls. And then, finally, discrimination and bias — models being misused for making certain decisions, whether it’s hiring, housing, finance, where we know the models can have problems. These are real problems today, with the models that are out in the world today. And those are the things that a lot of researchers, government and journalists should be focused on.One of the reasons I don’t push that is I feel we actually don’t know. Those other three D’s we know are already happening. Displacement of jobs — I think it will happen, but we don’t really have a lot of good data on what jobs and how much. I definitely think we need policymakers coming up with plans if we see displacement. What are we going to do to make sure that people able to pay their mortgage, pay their rent, send their kids to college? We don’t want to do what happened in globalization, where a lot of people really were negatively impacted. That was bad for our country and probably for other countries that saw similar problems. Given that you’re often looking years down the line, if HAI has an event at the 10-year mark, what do you think we’ll be talking about then?I work a lot on interfaces, how we interact with computing. I don’t see speech and typing to be the be-all, end-all interface. There’s many places where me gesturing at something, pointing, using my body, drawing — these other modalities are better. So what I call multimodal interface, like how we communicate with people, that’s the interaction we’re gonna see a lot more with our day-to-day computing. I think from applications, education, health — you’re going to see AI involved in a lot of that. My wife just had some diagnostics, and they clearly were using some AI algorithm to help make some decision on one of her tests. That’s going to be the norm in 10 years. AI algorithms are going to be involved in a lot of how our health data is interpreted. And then education — we are going to have personalized tutors for kids or people out in the work world that understand better the context of what you’re struggling with or what you need to learn, and are able to adapt it and make it more interesting to you based on your interests. Do we replace teachers? No, I hope not. We need humans to understand humans in a lot of ways. I see this augmentation tool. All of us will be using them in our jobs, and it’s just a matter of companies and designers figuring out good ways to help you do your job better. Hopefully, we’re also upskilling people to do more fulfilling things that require their human skills, and they use AI to help them do better and spend more time on things where we really need people. That’s my hope for 10 years. But I don’t think it will happen by itself. I think we actually have to talk about it, and we have to say this is what we want. And we have to give people tools to think about how to design it that way. Because technologists, I think, will default to, “How do I just replace the person?” And many companies will default to, “How do I replace that person and just make more money?” And so I think we need to shape that future we want or else it might not happen.Curtis Bradford, seen in front of the former site of Compton’s Cafeteria at Turk and Taylor streets: “It’s what makes people feel the most welcome — you can be anybody there.”LGBTQ+ San Franciscans say the Tenderloin remains a haven for young queer people looking to make a fresh start in The City, even as the neighborhood has become a flashpoint for issues such as drug abuse and homelessness. “It’s what makes people feel the most welcome — you can be anybody there,” said Curtis Bradford, the community organizing manager for the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation. “I just can’t think of a better example of what diversity and inclusion looks like.”A historic plaque marking the Compton’s Cafeteria riot by trans people against police harassment in August 1966 at the former site of Compton’s Cafeteria at the corner of Turk and Taylor Streets in San Francisco on Tuesday, July 9, 2024. The neighborhood cemented its place in LGBTQ+ history in 1966 — three years before the better-known Stonewall riots in New York City — during theWhile the cafeteria has long since closed, the event has become part of the neighborhood’s fabric. A portion of the neighborhood now known simply as the Transgender District was previously named the Compton’s Transgender Cultural District. The neighborhood continues to welcome LGBTQ+ residents, Bradford said, pointing to his arrival in The City 20 years ago. “I was one of the roughly 40% of young homeless folks who identify as LGBTQ+,” living in the Tenderloin, he said., a federally mandated tally of the number of homeless people in The City on a certain night, nationally around 40% of homeless youth or young adults identify as LGBTQ+. In San Francisco, it was 28%. Bradford said he fell into drug use soon after arriving in the Tenderloin, with a disability while unhoused. But after some time, he found housing in a single-room-occupancy facility with the TNDC — and, he said, he has been sober for the last 13 years. In his role today, he said, he still loves the Tenderloin for all that it offers to those looking for a place to land while acknowledging its problems. “I think this neighborhood is more tolerant of activities that might otherwise not be in other neighborhoods,” he said. “But it’s also a place of last refuge or first access.” Bradford and others in San Francisco’s queer community said they have noticed an increase in the number of LGBTQ+ youth arriving in The City amid the rise of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation — particularly anti-trans laws — across the country. “Our community represents a disproportionate number of the unhoused — people fleeing persecution, whether it be internationally, or at this point, nationally,” said Honey Mahogany, a transgender activist and the director of the San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives. Mahogany said she has spoken with new residents in the Tenderloin, SoMa and Civic Center neighborhoods coming from states such as “Montana, West Virginia or Tennessee,” as well as “other parts of California,” which she noted is “not a monolith” despite its progressive reputation.Honey Mahogany at Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, a LGBTQ bar at 133 Turk Street in the Tenderloin of San Francisco on Tuesday, July 9, 2024., according to the research group Trans Legislation Tracker, with 620 pieces of legislation introduced. The proposed laws cover issues such as access to athletics, bathrooms and health care., introduced by four Republican lawmakers, would have required educators to notify parents or guardians if their children start to present as transgender or gender-nonconforming.“People are coming here to San Francisco, knowing and seeing that this is a safe space,” Mahogany said. “We have a trans district here, we have so many different services that are actually run by trans people and serve the trans community.” Many of these organizations operate out of the Tenderloin, creating a concentration of services that includes food, housing and support groups. Founded in 2017, the Transgender District is one such organization. It encompasses six blocks in the southeastern Tenderloin and two blocks South of Market on 6th Street. Mahogany, one of the district’s co-founders, said it offers a variety of programs for the community. She said it provides a space for trans folks to come together, build community and develop professionally, as well as practical resources like rental subsidies. But it’s not just the neighborhood’s organizations and services that attract LGBTQ+ folks, Bradford said, it’s the sense of community itself. “Before there was a Castro, there was the Tenderloin,” he said. “I think this neighborhood in particular was really important to the survival of the gay community, and making a safe space for folks.” Bradford said the Tenderloin remains a safe space because not many people first arriving in The City can afford to set up in the Castro. Older members of the queer community who are lower-income might not feel as welcome there, either, he said. “If you’re living in the SRO in the Tenderloin and you’re a senior or you’re disabled, and you’re living on SSI, maybe you don’t have as nice of clothes, or you don’t feel as attractive,” he said. “Those are the kind of barriers that keep folks from the bars in the Castro.” The Tenderloin establishments are accepting of all, Bradford said, although there are fewer queer bars and clubs in the neighborhood than there used to be, particularly on lower Polk Street. “We had some really nice bars that were wide open — you could look in the windows and see gay people sitting and eating and drinking and dancing,” he said. “But all those places got converted, shut down, and closed as part of that gentrification that was happening.”Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, a LGBTQ bar at 133 Turk Street in the Tenderloin of San Francisco on Tuesday, July 9, 2024. Manager Joe Mattheisen, who has worked at the bar since 1998, said he credits the bar’s longevity to the owner, William Erkelens, and the community’s support over the decades.The nearly 40-year-old bar almost closed permanently during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but ot managed to stay afloat due to While many of the bar’s longtime patrons are older members of the neighborhood’s LGBTQ+ community, Mattheisen said, he’s noticed some new blood in the mix lately. “New kids are coming in a lot,” he said. “They don’t understand some of the things that went on years and years ago, so we still share stories about the past while looking forward to the future.” Moving forward, Bradford said he hopes the Tenderloin’s queer community has a chance to grow and follow the example of those who came before them. “The visible presence of an LGBTQ+ community in the neighborhood has dwindled,” he said. “But the people — the seniors, the trans folks, the disabled and the poor members of the LGBTQ+ community — they still live here.”{span id=”docs-internal-guid-331da6f5-7fff-220d-7000-83444e06192c”}{span id=”docs-internal-guid-331da6f5-7fff-220d-7000-83444e06192c”}Alex Bastian, president and CEO of the Hotel Council of San Francisco, delivering signatures to the San Francisco Department of Elections.{/span}{/span} A business-tax reform measure that qualified this week for the November ballot would see San Francisco initially forego some revenue by lowering levies for some companies while raising them for others in an effort to support and retain businesses in The City. The committee supporting the tax proposition, which was worked out with the mayor and other top city officials, had already received $770,000 in contributions by the end of June, according to a disclosure filing. Proponents had spent $553,743 of the money raised. Going by the name “Revitalize San Francisco, a coalition of small businesses, tech companies and business groups,” the committee had received its biggest contribution — $500,000 — from internet-services giant Google, which has thousands of workers in San Francisco. “This measure will simplify the business tax code, create more stable revenues for the City, and cut taxes for many businesses that drive this city’s economy, which are some of the many reasons why we support it,” read a statement provided by a Google spokesperson. The Committee to Expand the Middle Class Issues Committee, sponsored by Airbnb, contributed $250,000. An Airbnb spokesperson declined to comment., a compromise that has some winners and some losers. On June 20, proponents submitted 23,357 signatures to the San Francisco Department of Elections, which issued a letter Monday stating that the threshold for ballot qualification of 10,029 signatures had been met. The measure, titled the “Local Small Business Tax Cut Ordinance,” needs just over 50% approval from voters in November to pass. In announcing the tax-overhaul deal, proponents emphasized its benefits for small-business owners. The measure was submitted to city elections officials by two small-business representatives — Masood Samereie, president of the Council of District Merchants, and Laurie Thomas, president of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. For big businesses, the measure seeks to reduce the concentration of taxes coming from a small number of companies, with the collective percentage of business taxes coming from the top five payers expected to drop from 28% to 23%.To reduce the incentive for companies to relocate or have employees work remotely, the measure would shift away from calculating taxes based on relative payroll in San Francisco and toward sales into The City. ‘It’s going to shift the tax rates in a way so you are not punished for having employees here,” said Alex Bastian, president and CEO of the Hotel Council of San Francisco and one of the leaders of the reform effort. In addition, organizers say the proposed measure would cut $10 million in fees and simplify the tax system. One hope is that eliminating complexity will reduce the potential for conflicts with taxpayers — in recent years, The City has paid out tens of millions of dollars inSmall-business owners would benefit because the measure would raise the exemption threshold for paying The City’s gross-receipts tax rise from around $2 million to $5 million. San Francisco officials estimated that 88% of all restaurants and 50% of retailers that now pay gross-receipts taxes would be exempt if the measure passes. Hotels, arts, entertainment and recreation businesses, among others, would also receive tax cuts, while biotechnology, specified financial services, wholesale trade and utilities would be among the sectors seeing increases. Bastian said that instead of hotels facing a scheduled 30% increase in gross-receipts taxes next year, the measure would provide them with a 12% decrease. Hotels have been facing big financial challenges with continued lower tourism since the COVID-19 pandemic — occupancy rates have been in the 60% range versus the 80% average from past years — as well as higher costs in various categories, Bastian said.The reform package was the result of a process involving small and large businesses, labor representatives and others that was initiated by Mayor London Breed, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin and Supervisor Rafael Mandelman. It reflected an extraordinary level of agreement that intervention was needed to stimulate and protect a wounded local economy that has been sluggish since the pandemic. City officials projected that the reform package would be revenue neutral over time, with initial reductions of collections offset by future increases. “It will show investors and the business community that San Francisco is willing to take steps in the right direction when it comes to creating a more business friendly climate,” Bastian said. “This really is an example of everyone working together to put the city first with this compromise.”Bruno Chemel’s new French restaurant, Le Parc Bistrobar, opened Monday near Union Square as the accomplished chef bets big on The City’s continued recovery.Click and hold your mouse button on the page to select the area you wish to save or print. You can click and drag the clipping box to move it or click and drag in the bottom right corner to resize it. When you're happy with your selection, click the checkmark icon next to the clipping area to continue.This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. 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