Published 2021-12-26.
Time to read: 2 minutes.
Artificial intelligence systems, including machine learning systems, are primarily software-driven. Like all software, AI and ML systems reflect the societies that produced them. Conway’s Law explains how the internal organization of software reflects the organization that created it.
I postulate that the behavior of AI & ML systems reflect the society that the systems are embedded in. Do you find the AI systems are instrusive or exploitive? Look in the collective mirror for the society it was created by.
If the populace is viewed as merely something for corporations to exploit, and this view is accepted at enough levels in society, that becomes the status quo. In my opinion, the USA in 2022 has definitely reached that point.
Conway’s Law
Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure.– Melvin E. Conway, 1967
Allan Kelly’s Corollary
Organisational design is system design.– Allan Kelly, 2005
The The Mirroring Hypothesis: Theory, Evidence and Exceptions by Lyra J. Colfer and Carliss Y. Baldwin was published by the Harvard Business School in 2016.
... To build software, first build a community...
Software is essentially about people, and the larger-scale we make it, the more that truth becomes visible. One program reflects how one person thinks. A large-scale application reflects how many people think together.
– Pieter Hintjes, Sex in Title, and Other Stories, Dec 16, 2013
Do you even care? If so, please be the change you want to see in the world.
