Ethical AI: How Sama Balances Profit and Purpose in AI Development

The Human Side of AI Development

Artificial intelligence has become ubiquitous in our daily lives, powering everything from smartphone facial recognition to self-driving cars. But behind the scenes, there's an often overlooked human element that makes AI possible - the people who label and structure the massive datasets used to train AI models.

Sama is a company at the forefront of this "human-in-the-loop" AI development process. What sets Sama apart is its mission to provide dignified work and economic opportunities to people facing employment barriers, particularly in East Africa.

In a conversation with Eric Ries, Sama CEO Wendy Gonzalez shared insights on how the company balances its social mission with the demands of being a for-profit AI company in a competitive industry.

From Nonprofit to For-Profit with a Mission

Sama began as a nonprofit organization founded by Leila Janah in 2008. The core idea was to provide digital work opportunities to people in underserved communities as a path out of poverty.

Gonzalez explained how Sama made the transition to a for-profit model while maintaining its social mission:

"We got to sustainability as a nonprofit, but it became clear that to really scale our impact and invest in technology, we needed to take on significant investment. That's not easy to do as a nonprofit."

The company went through a formal process to convert from a nonprofit to a for-profit structure, with oversight from the California Attorney General's office. Importantly, the nonprofit foundation retained majority ownership of the new for-profit entity.

"The foundation was the 100% shareholder of Sama," Gonzalez said. "Through our Series B funding, the Leila Janah Foundation is still by far the largest shareholder."

This structure helps ensure the company stays true to its social mission even as it pursues growth and profitability. The foundation appoints members to Sama's board and the company became a certified B Corporation to further codify its commitment to balancing profit and purpose.

The Business Case for Ethical AI Training Data

While Sama's social mission is core to its identity, Gonzalez emphasized that it also provides strategic advantages in the competitive AI industry:

"We had to say, 'Hey, we can't compete on being the cheapest. How do we elevate the value of the human in the loop? What's our real differentiation?'"

By providing living wages, benefits, and career development opportunities, Sama is able to build a more skilled, dedicated workforce compared to crowdsourced alternatives. This translates into higher quality training data and faster iteration cycles for AI development.

"We have a workforce that's not only dedicated to you but they're trained on your specific application," Gonzalez explained. "As your model evolves, we stay with you. They retain that knowledge."

This approach has allowed Sama to work on advanced AI applications like autonomous vehicles, where safety and accuracy are paramount. The company's emphasis on quality and ethics has become a key differentiator as concerns grow about AI bias and safety.

Diversity as a Competitive Advantage in AI

Gonzalez highlighted how Sama's model of employing people in East Africa brings valuable diversity to the AI development process:

"A lot of artificial intelligence is built right here in California by a handful of people in a certain demographic. But this technology isn't just going to be used in California, it could be used all across the world."

By bringing in diverse perspectives from places like Kenya and Uganda, Sama helps ensure AI systems are developed with global use cases in mind. The company also maintains gender parity in its workforce, with women making up 53% of employees.

"It's important that we have people from Kenya, East Africa, sub-Saharan Africa participating in the development of AI," Gonzalez said. "I think it's incredibly important that you have women helping drive and structure this data."

Ethical Sourcing for AI Training Data

As AI becomes more powerful and ubiquitous, there's growing awareness of the need for ethical sourcing of training data. Gonzalez believes this will become a key consideration for companies developing AI systems:

"You've got to know at the end of the day - all this is built on data. You need to know where did the data come from and was that okay for you to use that data."

She drew parallels to how consumers became more conscious about ethical sourcing in industries like chocolate production. Similarly, AI users may start demanding more transparency about how training data was collected and labeled.

"Do you really want your self-driving car to have been trained on someone's data who was just clicking to get to the next screen so that they could get paid?" Gonzalez asked. "I don't think people as consumers are yet really aware of how important quality is as an input to this production."

Sama's model of providing stable employment and focusing on quality positions the company well as ethical AI becomes a bigger priority. Gonzalez believes standards and guidelines around ethical AI data sourcing will emerge as the technology becomes more prevalent.

Advice for Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs

For entrepreneurs looking to build companies that balance profit and social impact, Gonzalez offered this advice:

"Align your social mission and your business model. Get that sorted out up front. If you think of either as an afterthought, you will never be successful."

She emphasized the importance of being upfront with potential investors about the dual mission:

"You have to say that truly you are trying to do both. If you do not, you will get squeezed and pushed into decisions that you just don't want to make. If you do not have the right investors and the right governance structure, you're screwed."

Gonzalez admitted it took time for Sama to confidently embrace its unique model combining advanced technology with large-scale employment in East Africa. But ultimately, wearing the social mission proudly has been key to finding the right partners and customers.

"It took a while to realize that the only way you get there is by kind of wearing it on your sleeve," she said.

The Future of AI Development

Looking ahead, Gonzalez is excited about the convergence of multimodal AI models that can work with text, images, video, and other data types. She believes this will "completely change the way we interface and create AI."

As AI capabilities expand, Gonzalez sees Sama's human-centered approach becoming even more vital:

"You're now going to have the ability to do that with images, video, LIDAR data, atmospheric data - you name it. Having that visibility all the way through to say 'Hey, this product was made and it's sort of safe to use' - you can't just have a label that says 'We generated this by AI' with nothing else."

By maintaining its commitment to ethical AI development as the technology evolves, Sama is well-positioned to play a key role in ensuring AI systems are built responsibly and with diverse global perspectives in mind.

As Gonzalez put it: "If we could be just a small part of building an ecosystem, it'd be incredible." Through its unique model blending advanced technology with social impact, Sama is helping shape a more inclusive and ethical future for artificial intelligence.

Article created from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxPeGzqAdeo