RACINE COUNTY – — Microsoft will invest $3.3 billion in southeastern Wisconsin to build a new data center in Mount Pleasant, an academy to train future workers with Gateway Technical College, and a lab on the UW-Milwaukee campus — all focused on innovation through artificial intelligence.

But there are concerns about the rise of AI, from job displacement to discrimination. To fully understand the pros and cons of artificial intelligence, TMJ4’s Lighthouse team is going 360, to look at AI from multiple perspectives.

You’ll hear from the president of Microsoft on the benefits of AI and an ethics expert at Marquette University who warns of the potential for bias. But we begin with a prominent voice in Milwaukee’s AI community who is advocating for inclusion and education.

Tarik Moody, director of digital at Radio Milwaukee says he sees a lot of possibility for good with AI. For example, he’s built interactive chatbots to help residents understand complex issues like Milwukee’s city budget or school referendum proposals.

“Most people don’t have time to read a 9,000-page budget or go through the details,” he said.

“There’s a lot of possibility for good,” underlined Moody. “But it also comes with a caveat of responsibility.” Ignoring that responsibility, he added, could cause real harm. “Brown and black people will be left behind and hurt the most by this technology if we don’t do something now.”

Professor Michael Zimmer is an ethics expert and vice chair of Marquette’s Dept. of Computer Science, who believes the tech industry has a diversity problem. “I think there still is a problem with the lack of diversity in tech. But it’s getting better. A lot of the large companies spend a lot of effort trying to increase the diversity of their workforce.”

Without diversity, Professor Zimmer says bias can become an unintended consequence of AI systems.

“We may not even realize that AI might pick up that bias and sort of amplify it in ways that are hard to understand.”

So Andrea Albers of TMJ4’s Lighthouse team brought the concerns of Dr. Zimmer and Tarik Moody to the president of Microsoft, Brad Smith.

“If all the people who are building and coding and working with these AI tools or doing the input, the human element of this, look the same — are the same demographic— that would open the door to potential bias being integrated into these AI tools,” said Albers during a one-on-one conversation with Smith.

“I think that’s such an important point,” responded Smith. “Certainly, one of the things that we’ve learned as a company of many years is the best way to protect against and prevent bias is to have a diverse group of people working together to create and manage the technology.”

“It would just be a huge shame obviously if we created jobs that did not bring opportunities for the diversity that is here already,” continued Smith. “So that’s really a huge priority for us.”

“How do you make sure there’s diversity in that hiring process?” questioned Albers.

“I think fundamentally it’s just imperative that we work in partnership with people here in Wisconsin, who are already experts in how to train people and create opportunities for diverse people,” responded Smith. “So that’s why our partnership with Gateway Technical College and The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee is so important. These are institutions that are already doing this work.”

Smith also acknowledged that Microsoft’s AI announcement could spark concerns about job displacement in southeastern Wisconsin.

“I think jobs will change,” he said. “And just as with every generation of technological advances, some jobs will go away. New jobs will be created, and most of the jobs will change.”

It’s why Microsoft’s $3.3 billion investment is focused on creating a future-ready workforce, including youth education and employment programs in Racine County.

“It’s a huge priority to focus on the next generation and that means getting AI education, like computer science education, into public schools.” That’s something Smith says Microsoft is already doing in MPS.

Moody says he is encouraged to hear about plans for AI literacy because fear-based views of AI will not be productive for the future of any community.

“You fear what you don’t know. And we can’t have that,” he explained. “And that’s why AI literacy curriculum has to be implemented from kindergarten all the way through careers. I think that’s very important to have in a technology that moves so fast.”

A technology that’s moving fast toward a still unknown future. “I think the positives outweigh the potential problems,” said Smith. “But only if we do a good job.”

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