Dr. Nika White, the author of Inclusion Uncomplicated: A Transformative Guide to Simplify DEI, is president and CEO of Nika White Consulting. Dr. White is an award-winning management and leadership consultant, keynote speaker, published author, and executive practitioner for DEI efforts in the areas of business, government, non-profit and education. Her work helping organizations break barriers and integrate DEI into their business frameworks led to her being recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Diversity and Inclusion Trailblazer. The focus of Dr. White’s consulting work is to create professional spaces where people can collaborate through a lens of compassion, empathy, and understanding.
Shine My Crown spoke with Dr. White to discuss the growing ChatGPT trend, which has been proved to be biased, and how companies can address the situation by incorporating diversity and inclusion within their organizations.
Talk to us about the work you do and how you are using your skillset to change the playing field for organizations in dire need of redesigning their DEI framework.
We ensure impact over activity. We co-create solutions with our clients. They have the institutional knowledge and we have the DEI expertise. In this sense, we become an extension of our client’s teams. The collaboration enriches the final product and output. We leverage evidence-based data to inform the work.
Data shows that systems like ChatGPT have sometimes proven to produce outputs that are racist, sexist, and factually incorrect. How do engineers who train these artificial intelligence applications work to rectify the unmethodical data it pulls from the internet?
Engineers should begin with understanding where they are in their DEI journey and their own biases. Once you understand your own biases, you can start to address them in yourself and work. Engineers should be trained to understand racist language and systematic racism in data. This will give them the ability to decipher and shift through coded racist data and create programs around it.
In a recent quote, you mentioned that “left unchecked AI will regurgitate racist and sexist data and “facts” about POC, women and the LGBTQ+ community that historically was thought to be true in a culture that perpetuated systematic racism, sexism, and homophobia.” Can you expound more upon this statement and what the resolution will be to fix this?
If AI only accounts for data and not historical context, AI could assume that BIPOC don’t own homes because they don’t want to or have the ability to. Historical context tells us that redlining and continuous, systematic oppression have actually hindered BIPOC from purchasing homes. Engineers must bring that historical context to AI. That’s why having a diverse and well-trained engineering staff is important.
What do you believe is the real reason behind biased forms of technology like ChatGPT? Does it stem from human interference, or is science alone left to blame?
Human interference and science are to blame. Science is programmed to decipher information the best possible way it knows how. Science’s major flaw is agility. AI’s capacity to evolve and change is stunted unless the engineers create checks and balances. However, AI can only be as good as the engineers programming them. Engineers must understand their biases to stop them from being programmed in AI.
What are some current efforts you are working on to create spaces where people feel included in their personal and professional environments?
We recently launched a new learning experience, Unravel the Knot. My approach to DEI is of an integrationist, positing that the work of DEI is for all and can be organically incorporated into an individual’s personal and professional spaces. I was moved by people I’d interacted with who expressed wanting to be a part of cultivating cultures of belonging. Still, they found such an endeavor complicated, polarizing, and defeating. These sentiments are a barrier for many who desire to engage deeper.
Every day, we hear that the work of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is complicated – whether from businesses, employees, society in general, or the practitioners themselves. And the truth is—yes—DEI can be complicated because the issues of DEI are complex. But they don’t have to be.
Without a collective shift in how we relate to one another as humans, without the willingness to recognize our personal biases or withhold assumptions and sit with the discomfort, systems of oppression will remain locked in place. But, if we center on ways to uncomplicate DEI, the entry point for more people to engage effectively increases.
This program helps to change how complex many people perceive DEI to be so that the entry point for more people to engage in the work of belongingness increases significantly. This learning experience gives cohort members space to go deeper into foundational practical tips and tools, helping them actualize DEI personally and within their organization.Participants will craft their DEI story, learn more about their identity, assess their cultural patterns, learn about emotional intelligence and Lived Experience Intelligence, practice mindfulness, unmask themselves, interrogate their biases, and understand more about inclusive communication.
