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How AI is Erasing Disabled People
What does it mean to be different in the age of AI?
Everyone’s got an opinion on AI. Some people think it’s the future of productivity, others think it’s making society stupid, and others still think it’s going to rise up and kill us all. If you believe the news, it’s all three at the same time.
Many disabled people see AI as an accessibility tool, allowing them to write or perform other tasks that might be difficult due to their disability. This kind of tool can be huge, as many disabilities make certain tasks slower or even impossible. This can affect their ability to get jobs or pursue their passions. In this aspect, AI has a positive impact. However, other aspects of AI are harmful to disabled people, often in ways that aren’t obvious to the general public.
If these problems aren’t corrected, disabled people won’t just be inconvenienced by AI. They will be erased.
In its simplest terms, generative AIs — which are typically what people mean when they say “AI” — are trained using large data sets on what is normal or acceptable, and they then produce the desired outcome based on this training. Humans reinforce this training by evaluating and providing feedback on the AI’s outputs. The more the AI is used, the more accurate the outputs get.
