With the rapid proliferation of advanced technology, more and more systems are now equipped with artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms.However, can we objectively say that these systems are truly fair and unbiased?In this stash, I share 4 cognitive biases that AI/ML systems have and how machines could be full of biases because the engineers who built them are inherently imperfect.

4 Cognitive Biases In AI/ML Systems

<ul><li>Selection bias refers to the selection of training/testing data that is not representative of the entire population. </li><li>Example: An engineer chooses the first 100 volunteers who responded to his email as his training data </li><li>The problem: The first 100 respondents may be more enthusiastic about a product or study than the last 100 respondents. By explicitly choosing the first 100 respondents, the engineer introduces unfairness in his data collection method.</li><li>The solution: select a random sample of 100 users from your pool of email respondents instead of the first 100.</li></ul>

Selection Bias

<ul><li>Reporting bias refers to people’s (conscious and unconscious) tendencies to suppress the information they report.</li><li>Example: Many amazon products have more 5-star and 1-star reviews than 2, 3, or 4-star reviews because people who have extreme experiences (either positive or negative) are more likely to post a review than those who have neutral experiences.</li></ul>

Reporting Bias (1)

<ul><li>The problem: An engineer that uses online reviews as their primary data source may create an AI model that is great at detecting extreme sentiments but not so much at detecting more neutral, subtle sentiments.</li><li>The solution: Consider broadening the data collection scope to account for the underrepresented data.</li></ul>

Reporting Bias (2)

<ul><li>Implicit bias refers to people’s unconscious tendencies to make assumptions/associate stereotypes with others. </li><li>Example: An engineer who is often bitten by dogs believes that dogs are more aggressive than cats, even though that may not be scientifically true. </li><li>The problem: The engineer would believe that the ground truth is “dogs = aggressive” and thus fine-tuned her AI model to label dogs as being more aggressive than cats. </li><li>The solution: As implicit bias is unconscious to an individual, having multiple engineers code the AI and establishing proper peer review procedures would reduce such biases</li></ul>

Implicit Bias

<ul><li>Framing bias refers to people’s tendency to be influenced based on how information is presented. </li><li>Example: An engineer who sees a dark and dull website for a product believes that the product must have poor sales, ignoring the actual positive sales number of the product. </li><li>The problem: In designing the AI algorithm, the engineer may take into account subjective variables, such as the color of a website, instead of focusing on objective metrics. ﻿</li><li>The solution: Avoid subjective (usually qualitative) data and prioritize objective, factual data instead.</li></ul>

Framing Bias

<ul><li>Selection Bias (selecting data not representative of the entire population)</li><li>Reporting Bias (people’s tendency to underreport information)</li><li>Implicit Bias (people’s unconscious tendencies to assume)</li><li>Framing Bias (people’s tendency to be affected by how information is presented)</li></ul>

Quick Recap Of 4 Cognitive Biases In AI/ML Systems

<ol><li>Always select a random sample (instead of the first or last hundred data points) </li><li>Verify your data sources through comparison with other data sources </li><li>Assign more (diverse) engineers to develop the AI/ML system </li><li>Establish proper peer review procedures to cross-examine logic and unconscious bias </li><li>Prioritize objective and factual data over subjective (usually qualitative) data.</li></ol>

The 5 best practices to enhance objectivity in AI/ML systems 

As you can see, humans’ perceptions are deeply flawed and our imperfection may trickle down into the systems we build. By acknowledging such biases, however, we can optimize the AI systems we build and make them more fair and objective. I hope you learned something new today. If you like what you’re reading, do drop a clap or a follow! I’ll catch you in the next article. Cheers!

Conclusion

In the ideal world, machines are unbiased and objective. However, the humans who engineer these machines are inherently biased.

With the rapid proliferation of advanced technology, more and more systems are now equipped with artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. In this article, I share 4 cognitive biases…

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A study showed that the average person has more than 6000 thoughts every day. That is approximately 4 thoughts every minute, or 1 thought every 15 seconds. Despite having thousands of thoughts every day, we hardly could claim ourselves to be deeply creative and innovative. In this stash, I will share 3 unintuitive ideas to challenge your thinking and encourage you to think outside the box.

When intuition fails, how would you react?

Indeed, it is the quality of our thoughts that counts — not the quantity.

Known as the Mpemba effect, the phenomenon that hot water freezes faster than cold water was named after Erasto Mpemba.

Idea #1: Hot water turns to ice faster than cold water (Science)

<ul><li>In 1963 when Erasto was a student at Magamba Secondary School, he wanted to sell ice cream to earn some pocket money. </li><li>In the urgency to prepare the ice cream quickly, he skipped the cooling phase of the preparation and placed the hot milk mixture directly into the freezer. </li><li>To his surprise, he observed that his hot milk mixture froze faster than his classmates’ cooled milk mixture. </li><li>The observation ultimately spun into a research paper and was termed the Mpemba effect.</li></ul>

The Story

<ul><li>Logically speaking, it makes sense that cold water freezes faster than hot water since it can skip the cooling process that the hot water needs to undergo. </li><li>With this logic in mind, the Mpemba effect seems highly unintuitive. </li><li>Indeed, this phenomenon has caused significant controversy in the scientific community. </li><li>Although some very reputable scientific bodies have debunked this theory, the validity of this effect is still largely disputed, with some attributing the strange phenomenon being observed due to impurities in the mixture.</li></ul>

The Controversy

If you’re a chemist, you may feel underwhelmed or disappointed by this idea. “Isn’t this just a failed experiment then?”. If you took some time to explore the controversy online, however, you may discover a treasure trove of interesting theories proposed by science fanatics that tries to prove this phenomenon right.

The Takeaway

What is the average age of 3 boys aged 10, 15, and 20? Well, you can simply add all their ages up 10 + 15 + 20 = 45 and divide it by 3 — giving you the answer of 15.

Idea #2: More than one average (Math)

You have 3 types of storybooks — Book A, Book B, and Book C — of varying quantities. You need to find the average number of words in the storybooks. <ul><li>Each Book A has an average of 100 words/book (quantity = 5, total words = 500) </li><li>Each Book B has an average of 200 words/book (quantity = 10, total words = 2000) </li><li>Each Book C has an average of 500 words/book (quantity = 15, total words = 7500) </li><li>The total number of words is 500 + 2000 + 7500 = 10000 </li><li>The total number of books is 5 + 10 + 15 = 30</li></ul>

Now, imagine this weird, complicated scenario:

Here are your TWO options: <ul><li>Get the average of the averages (i.e. average of the sum of averages in Book A, B, and C). (100 + 200 + 500) / 3 = ~267 words per book </li><li>Get the average by dividing the total number of words by the total number of books. 10,000 / 30 = ~333 words per book </li></ul>Even if you’re not a mathematician, you may be inclined to pick the 2nd option. Perhaps surprisingly to some, both approaches are actually correct.

How would you find the average num of words in the storybooks?

<ul><li>The term ‘average of the averages’ is often frowned upon by mathematicians. </li><li>However, in this case, the term ‘average of the averages’ is merely a disguise. The calculation of the ‘average of the averages’ actually leads to the calculation of Simple Average, a perfectly valid way of calculating the average. </li><li>Not to get too math-y here, simple average merely means that you’re taking the average of a particular dataset without considering the weight (or in this case, the quantity) of each item group.</li></ul>

The Reason  Method 1 — ‘average of the averages’

<ul><li>This is the classic ‘weighted average’ approach and is likely what most people use to calculate averages. </li><li>This kind of average takes into consideration the weight (or quantity) of each item group.</li></ul>

The Reason Method 2 total words / total number of books

Both averages are perfectly valid and one may be more suitable than the other depending on the context. Surprised? Well… the learning point here isn’t about math.It’s about realizing how we could adopt a shift in perspective and still derive the right answer.

Both Approaches Are Valid

Are you more likely to receive help in a room with 3 people, or a room with 30 people? The answer may be surprising to some.

Idea #3: The Bystander Effect (Psychology)

<ul><li>The probability that a person in distress will be helped by a bystander is inversely proportional to the number of bystanders present. </li><li>To put it simply, this means the more bystanders are present, the less likely someone in distress will receive help.</li></ul>

According to the Bystander Effec

<ul><li>This strange paradox of human behavior was first formulated by psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané. </li><li>This social psychological theory was first prompted by a dark incident where it was wrongly reported that 38 bystanders watched passively during an attack on a victim. </li><li>The theory is then demonstrated and popularized in 1968 and many social scientists soon launch a series of experiments to test the theory. </li><li>Today, this theory is widely established and taught in many Psychology classes.</li></ul>

Background of The Bystander Effect

Diffusion of Responsibility<ul><li>“Someone else will do it” (i.e. someone else will help the person in distress) </li><li>In this case, the presence of others makes individuals feel less responsible to take action. </li><li>Here, the responsibility is thought to be shared among those who are present. </li></ul>Social Influence<ul><li>“I will monitor how others act before I do anything” </li><li>As humans, we tend to subconsciously adjust our behaviors to fit our current environment. </li><li>In this case, when those around us fail to react to the person in distress, we often take that as a signal that nothing is wrong.</li></ul>

Two Major Factors causing the Bystander Effect

Both diffusion of responsibility and social influence makes it less likely for a person to receive help in a room with 3 people than in a room with 30 people. The Bystander Effect, a counter-intuitive theory that the more people are present, the less likely you’ll receive help, is yet another idea that challenges conventional logic.

Strange Paradox of an Idea

That’s it! Do you feel weird, surprised, ambivalent, or even confused? If you did, then I’m glad that I have sparked some thoughts in your mind. Recap of Our 3 Counter-Intuitive Ideas <ul><li>Idea #1 — Hot water turns to ice faster than cold water (Science) </li><li>Idea #2 — More than one average (Math) </li><li>Idea #3 — The Bystander Effect (Psychology) </li></ul>I hope you have experienced some level of paradigm shift through learning about these thought-provoking ideas from numerous disciplines. Keep learning. Keep thinking. Keep improving. I’ll catch you in the next stash. Cheers!

Summary

A study showed that the average person has more than 6000 thoughts every day. That is approximately 4 thoughts every minute, or 1 thought every 15 seconds. Despite having thousands of thoughts every…

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3 Counter-Intuitive Ideas To Challenge Your Thinking

Do you read a lot of self-help books? Do you watch self-improvement videos frequently to learn how you can better yourself?If you do, one difficulty you’d undoubtedly face on this journey is ‘actionability’ — that is, taking action and applying new knowledge you’ve learned to better yourself.

The Journey of Self Improvement

You see…Knowledge is not power. Knowledge is POTENTIAL power. If you don’t use your knowledge in some way, shape, or form, it is innately worthless. Yes. Knowledge is worthless if you don’t tap on them.

Knowledge is NOT power

So what’s stopping us from taking action on our knowledge? Well… there are a couple of reasons. Let’s explore.

How Do We Turn Knowledge Into Power?

<ul><li>We often think that big changes are necessary for us to grow. </li><li>However, big changes require a lot of work. </li><li>If you put yourself in a position where you can easily get overwhelmed by the large amount of work, you’d very likely give up.</li></ul>Example:<ul><li>You want to start meditating to clear your mind. </li><li>You set a goal to meditate every day for 30 minutes. </li><li>However, the large time commitment quickly overwhelms you and you give up on meditation altogether.</li></ul>

Problem #1 — We THINK we HAVE TO make really big changes

The solution to this problem requires a mindset shift. <ul><li>Understand that small changes are enough. </li><li>Oftentimes the change you need is SMALLER than you think. </li><li>Starting small makes it mentally easy for you to get started. </li><li>You can ALWAYS ramp up your efforts as time passes. </li></ul>These little bits of effort will add up in the long run. Consider This: <ul><li>Start by meditating for 3 minutes twice a week. </li><li>Once you start to notice the benefits, you can slowly ramp up your meditation frequency and duration.</li><li>It’s much easier for you to pick up the habit of meditation this way.</li></ul>

Solution #1 — Focus on making REALLY small sustainable changes

Here’s a great example. <ul><li>Bob and Alice are both trying to become healthier. </li><li>Bob says that he will “try to become healthier this year”. </li><li>Alice says that she will run 3 times a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 8 am to 9 am. </li></ul>Who do you think is more likely to accomplish their goal? They say that “ambiguity is the mother of procrastination” and that couldn’t be closer to the truth.

Problem #2 — We don’t have a clear plan

To eliminate ambiguity, you need a plan.In general, the more specific and the more clear you are about your plan the better. <ul><li>What’s the first task you will tackle when you wake up? </li><li>How long will you spend on your afternoon workout? </li><li>Where will you do your evening meditation? </li></ul>The goal is to turn your desired outcomes into a series of very clear behaviors.

Solution #2 — Make a plan and be specific

There are many golden nuggets of wisdom in self-help books and yet we struggle to remember most of them. Even if we somehow remember the lessons vaguely, we fail to act on them at the right times. A lesson about leadership may only be relevant when you are in a leadership position. However, you get so overwhelmed while leading that you fail to use the leadership tips you learned in a book. Your breathing exercises will only come in handy when you’re in high-pressure situations. However, when you’re stressed, you fail to remember the breathing exercises that are supposed to calm you down.

Problem #3 — We don’t remember to do it

The first thing you need to do is realize the fallibility of human memory. <ul><li>To remember the lessons from self-help books, you NEED to take notes.</li><li>Taking notes not only helps you to remember key ideas from books you’ve read, but it also saves you the time from flipping through the book to search for ideas you vaguely remember. </li></ul>

Solution #3 — Take notes and set triggers to remind you

After keeping track of these valuable lessons, you’d want to set some triggers to prompt yourself to take action on them. A trigger is any stimulus that influences behaviors (similar to a cue)<ul><li>Time-based trigger: It’s 7 am — my alarm rang so I will get up to head for work </li><li>Location-based trigger: I passed by the park so I will slow down, try to be more present, and take deep breaths to relieve my pressure </li><li>Emotional State Trigger: I feel stressed so I will sit down and meditate </li></ul>Ultimately, writing notes allows you to track your knowledge, and setting triggers reminds you to take action on them.

Solution #3 (continue)

To end off, I'd like to leave you with a quote"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do."I hope you found some value in these writings. Take care and I'll catch you in my next writing! Cheers.

Struggling to take action on what I’ve learned is something that’s very close to my heart. I sometimes wonder about the purpose of reading a whole self-help book if I fail to act on my newfound knowledge.

If this resonates with you, I am positive that this article will bring great value. Have a read!

This article is written part of the #CrystalizeMyLearning movement I founded where I seek to learn through writing | August 2022 Edition * * * Do you read a lot of self-help books? Do you watch self-improvement videos frequently to learn how you can better yourself? If you do, one difficulty you’d u

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3 Ways To Turn Knowledge Into Action

Mental health is supremely important.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Mental health affects your sleep</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Mental health affects your health</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Mental health affects your productivity</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Mental health affects your relationships</li></ul> Mental health affects your life!So read on to find out 6 tips to improve your sleep, health, productivity, relationships, and life!

6 Tips For Mental Health (and how to be an ally)

What is candor? It is the quality of being honest and open.Building candor with the vulnerable builds trust and improves relationship. It also helps you to relief stress and all your bottled up emotions!

Building Candor

What should you do when you feel stressed, anxious, and overwhelm?Try the '478' breathing technique made popular by Dr Andrew Wail.There are only 3 steps involved<ol><li>Breath in deep for 4 seconds</li><li>Hold your breath for 7 seconds</li><li>Exhale slowly over 8 seconds</li></ol>It'll feel much better soon! Give it a shot!

The ‘478’ Breathing Technique

If you listen to your body when it whispers, you won’t have to hear it scream.Be collaborative with your body and mind! If you put your nose to the grindstone for too long (i.e. work too hard for too long), you may cut your nose!Be mindful and collaborative!

Be Collaborative Instead of Forceful

No not that ants but Automatic Negative Thoughts“I am not smart enough”, “Bad things will happen”, “I don’t think I am ever going to succeed”. — these are prime examples of negative thoughts.I believe it may be difficult to completely destroy all ants (pun intended), but if you fill your life with positivity, I promise you’d find yourself in a much better place.Instead of “I can’t do it”, think “I can try”. Instead of “I can try”, think “I will do it”. Take it one step at a time, and overwhelm those ants with positivity and love!

Get Rid of Ants!!! (Automatic Negative Thoughts)

In a high-stress environment when the amygdala is active, the prefrontal cortex (responsible for rationality & critical thinking) is “switched off.” This means that in an environment where fear and anger are present, people are unable to make rational decisions!So give the '478' breathing technique a shot if you ever feel angry or scared!

Understand The Amygdala (part of brain controlling fear & anger)

There is a clear distinction between “I am anger” and “I feel anger”. In the former, you are subconsciously letting anger consume you. You’d find ways to justify any rash actions because you think you’re anger. In the latter, anger is nothing but another feeling that happens to pass by your body and soulSo try your best to understand, acknowledge, and let go of it!Try saying - "I feel angry. But that's okay and it is normal. I acknowledge it and I'm going go breath and let it go.

Understanding Your Emotions

Thats it! I am positive that this 6 tips would bring tremendous value in your life.To summarize, the 6 tips are<ol><li>Building Candor</li><li>The '478' Breathing Technique</li><li>Be Collaborative Instead of Forceful</li><li>GET Rid of Ants (Automatic Negative Thoughts)</li><li>Understand The Amygdala (part if brain controlling fear & anger)</li><li>Understanding Your Emotions</li></ol>That's it from me! Stay rocking and stay positive!

I share the 6 best mental tips to improve your sleep, health, productivity, relationships, and life!

Since COVID-19 started on 31 December 2019, many were forced into lockdown and faced isolation for a long time. Schools were closed and everyone started working from home. The effect of COVID-19 on…

4 Cognitive Biases In AI/ML Systems

3 Counter-Intuitive Ideas To Challenge Your Thinking

3 Ways To Turn Knowledge Into Action

Everything I have Learnt About Mental Health | #CrystalizeMyLearning (Feb 2022)

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