Assuring the emotional and cultural intelligence of intelligent software systems

Intelligent software systems (e.g., conversational agents, profiling systems, hiring systems) are often designed in a manner which may perpetuates anti-Black racism and other forms of socio-cultural discrimination. This may reinforce social inequities by supporting the automation of consequential and sometimes unfair decisions that may be made by such systems and which may have an adverse impact on credit scores, insurance payouts, and even health evaluations, just to name a few. My lightning talk will therefore emphasize the need to propose a new type of non-functional requirements called ECI (emotional and cultural intelligence) requirements that will aim at developing discrimination-aware intelligent software systems. Such systems will notably be able to behave empathetically toward everyone, including minoritized groups and will ensure they are treated fairly. My talk will also emphasize the need to develop novel system assurance solutions to assure these ECI requirements are sufficiently supported by intelligent software systems.