Mindful Developers = Ethical AI ?

Could mindfulness save humanity from sick-dysfunctional AI? Last week I watched a video from the Global Mindfulness and Compassion Summit where Jamie Bristow shared the initiative created to provide UK politicians mindfulness training – Mindful Nation UK.

According to research ethical decision making, focus, clarity and compassion can be significantly improved with mindfulness training and I believe a boost in those qualities would be definitely welcome to many politicians worldwide, especially in my home country, Brazil.

It got me thinking.

Since when I started teaching mindfulness in corporate, back in 2014, I always had a soft spot for delivering training in tech companies because of my background in the IT industry. I felt at home and comfortable. I know what those project managers, solution architects, software engineers go through daily because I’ve been there. I know how much pressure they are under to keep up with new technologies, the unrealistic deadlines and often the lack of appreciation.

I can relate.

Last week I published an article, The Mindful AI Manifesto, which took me literally months of research to craft. It is about the urgent need to embed human values into AI and the risks of ungoverned AI, such as unconscious bias from developers infiltrating into their code.

I think programming can be a beautiful creative process and similar to any art, the masterpiece is a reflection of the artist mindset, their view of the world, their beliefs and values. Like children are often influenced by, if not a replica of, their parents.

🔺 What if we could train our AI developers in mindfulness?

🔺 Would they give birth to less biased AI code?

🔺 Would that code be more ethical even with the lack of enforced governance guidelines and standards which sadly are not yet available?

In addition to the successful initiatives lead by Joy Buolamwini (Algorithmic Justice League) and Kriti Sharma (AI for Good – UK) to increase the diversity among AI developers, could mindfulness training be an additional interim solution?

Food for thought.

To learn more | Scientific articles on Mindfulness & Ethical Decision Making:

• Mindfulness Training, Implicit Bias and Force Response Decision Making – Matthew Hunsinger, Michael Chrsitopher and Andi Schmidt (2019)
• The effect of Mindfulness in Ethical decision Making – Nicole Ruedy, Maurice Schweitzer (2010)
• Mindfulness as Enhancing Ethical Decision Making – Regina Trammel (2015)

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