From Data-Driven to Human-Centric: My Journey in AI Ethics and the Need for a New Mindset in AI Development

After graduating with a business degree, I was drawn to marketing and advertising. For over 20 years, I worked to find the right customers for various products and services. I’ve marketed everything from migraine medication and fast food to credit cards and AI technology. Each project to find the right customer always starts with data. 

Businesses aim to sell, and data has become crucial in this goal. As people share more of their lives online – their conversations, behaviors, and even body information – data marketers like me saw many opportunities to capitalize on this information. 

 The Digital Revolution: A New Area to Explore 

When digital marketing emerged, it offered new ways to understand customers. We could see website visits, location information, and search behaviors. Social media gave us even more data, with people sharing their lives, opinions, and vulnerabilities online. 

I worked at Yahoo!, a publishing and ad platform. We measured success across three pillars: reach, revenue, and engagement. We focused on keeping people on our sites longer, creating more ad views and revenue chances. 

Capitalizing on Big Data 

In 2011, I started my own Big Data consulting business, promoting the idea of combining purchase information with social behavior data. I thought that if we had a full picture of the customer – from their social profile to their online actions and purchases – we could stop guessing and start predicting. 

I worked for a profiling startup that gave businesses insights from social media, including influence, demographics, location, sentiment, and content, to help them know more about their customers as people. Yet another startup, focused on customer journeys with a focus on improving the loan or credit card adjudication process.