Who is the human in the machine? Releasing the human–machine metaphor from its cultural roots can increase innovation and equity in AI

Abstract

AbstractComputer science and cognitive science have a shared past, with many intertwined goals and perspectives. The conceptual metaphor, shaping the discoveries of these fields for decades, has been the human mind–machine. New cross-cultural findings indicate that it is time that we interrogate the origin of the metaphor and develop a more global representation of attributes labeled human. This paper describes a gap in fairness research in cross-cultural bias affecting international participation in the field. It further outlines opportunities to diversify and test core concepts inspiring design and increasing equity. The proposed adaptation would shift our approach to knowledge and technology creation by (1) altering the attributes of the human mind–machine metaphor that define intelligence, memory, categorization, logic, inference, perception, concepts of time and space, concepts of personhood, and other cognitive terms which both fields study; (2) interrogating the universality implied by the conceptual metaphor to both machine and end-user; and (3) seizing the broadened conceptual metaphor to create new math, science, and disrupt the current paradigm scripting the inferences of research findings in computer science and cognitive science. A more globally attuned conceptual metaphor, updated to enfranchise the full membership the term human implies, will increase our collective ability to investigate, describe, and develop new science and technology and increase the equity of those involved in the process.