AIAI – Towards Accessible and Inclusive Artificial Intelligence

AIAI – Towards Accessible and Inclusive Artificial Intelligence (2020-2022), building on Finnish and Indian Expertise, Experiences, and Diversity

In collaboration with: Tampere University and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, India

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) is integrated into all things technical, there is a valid concern over its lack of diversity, inclusiveness, and accessibility. However, questions such as what it means for AI to be accessible and inclusive, why is inclusive AI required, and how can it be achieved, largely remain unanswered. Further, these questions are asked behind closed doors of academic research; with students, practitioners, and teachers largely left out of the discussions. For digital transformation of society to be empowering, inclusive, and accessible; it is important for researchers working in this field to open up their doors to academics from other fields, students, and industry, and to bring these issues to the forefront. In Finland, there is a growing body of research and expertise on AI and accessibility, and interest to develop this expertise further and be the world leaders on this topic. Collaboration with Indian partners provides channels for Finnish research export, and access to wide and diverse user groups, many of which lie within the periphery of the digital revolutions the world is experiencing. With the pandemic forcing everyone towards a digital existence and sustenance, it is imperative to move those at the margins to the center. With the newly proposed Indian National Education Policy 2020 [NEP2020] on July 29th, India is gearing up for its own digital and educational revolution.

The AIAI project has a two-folded approach:

First, the AIAI project will develop concrete learning material on Accessibility, Inclusion, and AI targeted towards students and people across the world who are interested in and working on accessibility, inclusion, AI, and with diverse or marginalized users.

Second, the AIAI project pays particular attention to research outreach and opening the doors for everyone. The AIAI-project conducts hands-on workshops at relevant conference venues that attract students, academics and industry experts with varying and diverse backgrounds from all across the world. Through these workshops, the AIAI project will build a consortium of diverse experts and students, further strengthening its research outreach, and accessibility and inclusion.

The AIAI project answers the tough questions on what it means for AI to be accessible and inclusive, addressing the growing awareness of Artificial Intelligence's (AI) inherent biases and limitations, and the challenges in overcoming them.

Some AIAI activities by INTERACT researchers:

Nov 2023: Workshop at IndiaHCI 2023 on Designing Accessible and Inclusive Artificial Intelligence (AIAI)
Oct 2023: Oulu and Tampere teams visit IIT Delhi to run workshops with the Nao robot, the Paro robot, and with SL Zone application with local schools in New Delhi.
Nov 2022: Researchers visit India for
- IndiaHCI workshop 2022: Looking to the future
- PAIZ and AIAI workshop at Urdu Ghar in old city, Hyderabad, a workshop on imagining the future of social communication for minority communities based on their covid informational experiences.
- PAIZ and AIAI workshops with schoolchildren in Delhi on imagining ethical AI futures (PAIZ project info)
- PAIZ and AIAI workshops with schoolchildren in Delhi on social robotics which includes programming the Nao v6 robot (PAIZ project info)
- Guest lecture at IIIT-Delhi on Critical Design Thinking.
April 2022: PAIZ and AIAI pilot workshops with schoolchildren in Delhi on imagining ethical AI futures (PAIZ project info)
June 2021: Academic Mindtrek workshop onUnderstanding and Designing Accessible and Inclusive Artificial Intelligence (AIAI) (info)
Spring 2021: Special Information Processing course on Accessible, Inclusive, and Empowering AI at University of Oulu