curiosity killed the cat who's here have
heard that saying okay basically
everyone in the room this thing actually
it's a very old saying it can be traced
back all the way to the 16th century
that's a very long time I personally
have a very I don't like that saying a
lot because one it undermines our
natural capacity as humans to be able to
think critically and to challenge
assumptions and on the other hand
curiosity has been something that shaped
my entire life all the way to what I do
today as a behavioral engineer where I
use curiosity to help people create
technology that is inclusive so we want
to think about having a world where
there are no biases there's no
discrimination at least from the
technological side we need to start
thinking about how we use curiosity
because you see curiosity is not just
this thing that makes you want to learn
more it's not just your desire to have
more knowledge it's actually this
incredible thing that has shaped us as
humans our history all the way from
starting from the create the invention
of fire to self-driving cars or anything
that comes after and it all starts with
one question so if you think about it
Wow why do we have to wait for pictures
to be developed and so Polaroid was
invented or just thinking about why does
the pot and Apple fall from the tree and
so we have gravity so these questions
are the things that have determined our
breakthroughs our innovations and we
thought it we wouldn't have them I find
myself to be a very curious person I
actually I asked so many why
when I meet someone I actively warn them
that I will be asking them a lot of
questions and I don't do this because I
just want to be polite and I will stop
asking questions I actually do this
because I will ask the questions but I
want to make them know that they'll feel
uncomfortable because we do feel
uncomfortable when someone's asked us
questions actually they make us think
critically and to be honest it is a lot
of fun so the thing about curiosity that
we sometimes and think is that it works
like we're receiving a gift so curiosity
makes our reward system work so we start
listen dopamine so it's almost like
we're expecting this information which
is like this gift that we're gonna be
receiving and that release of dopamine
in our brains feels so incredible so I
would Nestle you a bit about my story I
come from a family where I was highly
encouraged to be curious science and
engineering where the core and my mom
and dad all they wanted me to do is ask
questions and if I had a question they
will give me books they will get me
someone that specialized in the subject
that aim you to help me so I can ask
more questions and so I had no more
questions to ask so you can imagine when
I asked my mom and dad where do babies
come from
I definitely not get the
birds-and-the-bees talk I actually got
my mom to call her sister who's a
biology professor so she could explain
to me the process the biological process
of creating life so that was my
childhood on the other hand when you are
so curious sometimes it doesn't work
that well we're at school I was heavily
bullied I also had no friends and this
was from the teachers and from the
students especially from the teacher on
my favorite class which was other time
by all
I've always been into science and the
interesting thing is that I've actually
found a lot of people my friends from
different countries different part of
the world different cultures that the
same thing has happened to them they
have been shamed they have been punished
for being too curious or for asking too
many questions actually if you think
about we're supposed to reach our peak
of asking questions I'm here saving over
four or five and by the time an average
kids ask roughly a hundred and seven
questions per hour that's a lot right
but the thing is that when they go into
school that number drops just completely
drops all the way to actually
progressively they stop asking questions
to the point that they don't have
questions anymore so anyone here he's a
professor or a lecturer I'm sure you
understand how frustrating that is when
you're teaching you those young adults
and they're not asking you any questions
yeah so the thing about it is that it's
not just one we're kids while we grow up
leaders is they say that they want to
have curious minds but the reality is
that where research shows is that
leaders in companies they think that
curiosity is risky and also curiosity is
inefficient and it is true that
curiosity can be scary because it's
exploring the unknown but on the other
side of the spectrum the reality is that
curiosity companies that foster
curiosity in the workplace actually
adapt faster and they perform better and
this is critical in today's today's age
because there's digital disruption and
we need to really quickly adapt so we
truly have to start thinking about
curiosity differently and the way that I
would like to think Yuri Asli to you
what we should be doing is to one have
proactive curiosity so we get people to
actively ask questions
and encourage them to do it since their
cats all the way to the grown-ups and
the other thing is to think about
empathetic curiosity because the thing
is that it's not only about how you ask
questions or what questions you ask but
also about how you receive them and are
you ready to receive them and this is
where the empathy comes from so you have
to think about people's
intersectionality so gender race and you
also have to think about people's
backgrounds and how those things relate
to someone's perspective because even
though you might have two people that
look obviously the same and maybe come
from the same country and they're the
same gender
that doesn't mean that they have the
same lived experiences and by default
they will not have the same experiences
or they will not have the same needs
from technology I for example I come
from a country called Venezuela which is
in South America and the Caribbean and
in my country I've been called a black
lady I'm a lot of you guys's friend and
I'm sure a lot of for you a lot of you
it makes you cringe but the thing is
that what a lot of you might not know is
that in my country we deal with race
differently even though I look white on
the outside am I where I come from we
calling someone a black lady is a term
of endearment it's a beautiful thing to
say to someone and it's not based on the
color of your skin there's a lot of
historical reasons for that so I have
please go and ask questions and be
curious but we need to understand these
differences everywhere and for that we
need to be ready to accept that someone
will have a different life experience
that we do so we have to strip down for
biases and everything that we know so we
can take in as much information we can
because it is so important when we're
creating technology if you think about
AI for example for machine learning the
way they work is that they make
decisions based on what we teach them
and if we teach them in
that is 1-dimensional so I just tell
them about my gender I just tell them
just where I come from if we just do you
don't think we teach him information
that is biased they will make decisions
based on that information so they work
exactly like kids or us we get
information and we learn in but the
problem is that technology accelerates
it and also makes it into a bigger scale
so that means that anything that we
create
they have those biases will be
accelerated and the negative impact will
increase exponentially so we have to be
able to see humans as multi-dimensional
beings and all we think about context I
have a friend that he was in a software
cell for engineering company and they
had a day where they were allowed to
create any technology they wanted so the
team decided to create this program that
we have facial recognition and when they
came into the office they will greet
them hi good morning and they would say
the name of the person what happened is
that once it created it my friend the
team that created it was all white and
he was the only black person in the room
and even though the team that created it
was diverse um the result was that the
program did not identify my friend
because like he said he was a dark as a
dark shade of black so even though
sometimes in companies who think oh if
we have a diverse team yes it will help
because the question was asked
afterwards but the technology was
already created so in this case it's not
that impactful because we're just
talking about small program that will
really in the morning doing a them to
fight you okay but can you imagine this
at a larger scale how will this affect
us and discrimination because of gender
or race or color of your skin those are
more obvious then we have algorithms
there are also discriminating because of
Association so it could be something as
simple as you're not getting alone
because of where you live who using out
with
and even just if you own a dog or not so
we really need to start adding this
dimensions to these algorithms because
they are everywhere at this moment this
is not the future this is now we're
using these algorithms and these complex
programs to automate things like housing
things like loans all the way to the
criminal system and so we need to start
thinking of people about this in this
one to the multi-dimensional way and for
that we need to ask questions and we
need to be curious because otherwise we
wouldn't know I want to give you my
favorite example which is about a car
it's a self-driving car so cell driving
car is a car that will make the
decisions for you you're not driving
you're inside it will drive you so it
has to be programmed to make decisions
where to steer if you have to go right
left so imagine that you're in that
self-driving car and you're about to
crash and it's impossible is impossible
for you not to crash it's inevitable you
will crash but you have two options you
can steer to the left and in that
situation you will kill a child you'll
steer to the right and in that situation
you'll kill an elderly person who do you
save so what I find interesting is that
research but they found
MIT did a research about this and what
they found is that we as humans tend to
choose the younger person and women so
also this varies if you come from a
different country they they choose all
elderly person because again culture but
digit the rule is that people will
choose young people and children and
women sorry so if you have that self
same self-driving car and there'll be a
man and a woman same age that by default
means that the car learn that
every time the woman will be saved so in
this scenario men get killed every
single time that's what that just to
think of all these horrendous and unfair
so you can think about the sensations in
one dimension let's have more dimensions
to this so what about is a person is
influential right will you choose a
person that is influential in the
community or the person who's not
influential what makes a person
influential for starters is it like it
fits a precedent why does why does that
even mean
and as I'm asking you this have you
thought about what happens to you inside
the car are you supposed to be saved and
what determines that you're saved
luckily at this point in time it's not
legal to actually program program the
self-driving cars to choose who big to
make the stations based on how we look
and physical characteristics but there
will come a day where these cars and is
not in the far future this is happening
soon that this cars are going to be out
there making decisions and we have to
make sure that we ask enough questions
so these decisions are fair I'm not only
protecting one group and I love this
example because it's an impossible
example it's so difficult and
heartbreaking is to think that someone
has to put and creates these rules that
we do naturally as humans but we have to
really this question we asked some
ourselves and we have to really think
about them over creating this technology
so ask ask because technology creating
technology is a process I'm never saying
if people wait to ask all the questions
and they get the technology out there it
will take too long but it's not about
getting it right the first time it's
about being open to ask the questions
and see what can we improve like in the
case of my friend they ask the questions
and that's when when they saw the result
they saw it and then they asked the
question how can we improve it and we
really need to think about this process
when
creating any type of technology so I
want to invite you to be more curious
and to start removing yourself from
biases and start feeling comfortable
with the idea of being incorrect and
actually thinking that something very
fun and even if you're knowing correct
maybe you're not a hundred percent right
I'm thinking I can really add value and
have more information and feel good
about it
about being wrong be ready to be
uncomfortable and to make other people
feel uncomfortable it's also a lot of
fun and listen really truly listen
because if we want to create a fair
world that is equal for everyone where
technology is helping everyone we'd need
you is up to you to ask the questions
and give the perspective so we'll create
this technology curiosity killed the cat
but satisfaction write it back thank you
[Applause]