The Forgotten: The Media’s Deafening Silence on AI’s Role in Disabled Support
Why the Media Shouldn't Ignore AI’s Potential for Supporting Disabled Needs
How do you feel about media reporting? Does the media care about what you care about?
If you feel they don't seem to care about what you care about, you are not alone.
Trust in the media has been collapsing for years in most countries.
A recent IPSOS poll looking at the worldwide decline in trust in the media and the reasons why revealed the following:
These findings of fairly low trust in traditional media... are perhaps unsurprising, given the criticisms they have been subjected to in recent times; showing political bias, prioritising speed of reporting over accuracy, publishing inaccurate information and in the case of online platforms - using clickbait. Indeed, findings from the latest Ipsos Reputation Council showed that at a global level, media is believed to be among the top three industries currently facing the greatest reputation challenges.
While the degree of trust can vary in different countries, the overall downward trend in trust in the media is clear when looking at the big picture :
In most countries, trust is more often perceived to have decreased over the last five years than to have increased. Around a third of people across the globe (34%) trust newspapers and magazines less than they did five years ago.
My particular area of interest & focus is how AI impacts society. There are many problems with the media reporting about AI, one of the key problems is the lack of diverse perspectives when the media considers the impact of AI on society.
In this article, we will look at how AI could impact people with disabilities, and why the media silence about the impact of AI on the disabled matters.
How The Media Ignores the Disabled
Most journalists believe they serve an essential public good for modern societies as 'the fourth estate' which is described as:
The Victorian writer Thomas Carlyle called the press the ‘Fourth Estate of the Realm’. By this, he meant that it acted as a sort of watchdog of the constitution and, as such, formed a vital part of democratic government. Most modern writers would agree that the mass media should play a central role in sustaining and developing democracy: the media should present a full, fair, and accurate account of the news, they should inform and educate the general public, and they should cover a wide range of political opinions and positions
This sounds like a noble cause I’m sure you’d agree, however, as we saw a bit earlier that the reality is what most people feel about the media doesn't seem to reflect this high-minded goal.
As ThoughtCo wrote:
The use of the term "fourth estate" to describe the modern media, though, is somewhat outdated unless it is with irony, given the public's mistrust of journalists and news coverage in general.
The gap between how most Journalists see themselves, and what most people think about Journalists and the media, is a vast chasm ever-growing, it seems fair to say.
Journalists seem keen to claim how much they 'inform and educate the general public & cover a wide range of political opinions and positions' but to what extent is this true?
Looking at the news coverage of the needs of the disabled could perhaps be a good test. So how much reporting on the needs of the disabled is done by journalists and the media?
Not much, according to disability advocate Lisa Cox:
Over 1 billion people globally identify as having a disability. Yet those with a disability are not adequately represented in our media. I could write an entire article (and already have) on why representation of disabled people in the media is crucial from an ethical, moral and social justice stance... Most people with disabilities consume media every single day. I don’t walk but I do watch television, read the news and use my credit card. Ignoring this market share is bad for society and bad for business.
The Lack of Diverse Perspectives on AI
Stories are central to how you & other human beings make sense of the world and how they try to understand the future. As historian Yuval Harari said:
Homo sapiens is a storytelling animal that thinks in stories rather than in numbers or graphs and believes that the universe itself works like a story, replete with heroes and villains, conflicts and resolutions, climaxes and happy endings. When we look for the meaning of life, we want a story that will explain what reality is all about and what my particular role is in the cosmic drama.
Therefore which stories you are exposed to, and which stories are ignored, has a huge impact on the way we all see the world.
So what range of stories and perspectives are there around AI? Is the range of stories around AI diverse and varied?
Not so much, according to a large body of research done on this, as described in the article 'Expert views about missing AI narratives: is there an AI story crisis?'.
They summarise their findings:
In the case of artificial intelligence (AI), dominant stories are polarised between notions of threat and myopic solutionism. The central storytellers—big tech, popular media, and authors of science fiction—represent particular demographics and motivations. Many stories, and storytellers, are missing...Our findings indicate that dominant narratives distract and mislead public understandings and conceptions of AI. This suggests a need to pay closer attention to missing AI narratives. It is not simply about telling new stories, it is about listening to existing stories and asking what is wanted from AI.
The most dominant narratives about AI but content volume highlighted in the study.
Do these AI news topics seem familiar to you?
A report by the UK's leading science authority the Royal Society 'Portrayals and perceptions of AI and why they matter' highlighted these dangers:
AI narratives can be very helpful; for example, in inspiring those who work in the relevant disciplines and civil, public and private sectors; and in surfacing alternative futures and enabling debates about them. But they can also create false expectations and perceptions that are hard to overturn...Exaggerated expectations and fears about AI, together with an over-emphasis on humanoid representations, can affect public confidence and perceptions. They may contribute to misinformed debate, with potentially significant consequences for AI research, funding, regulation and reception.
When we consider the dominant narratives about AI, it's clear the needs of the disabled are one of the missing narratives which are completely ignored.
Sadly perhaps this is not surprising, given the way we have seen the media systematically and deliberately ignore the disabled more generally, despite the claims by the media of 'covering a wide range of political opinions and positions' which seems a more dubious claim as each day goes by.
What AI Means for the Disabled
So what does AI mean for the disabled? I've been trying to make up for the media deficit & silence on this with my own writing and articles.
In AI Doomer’s are Hurting the Disabled I looked at the potential consequences of those calling for a ban on AI research.
I highlighted many examples of AI-enabled technology that is making a huge difference to the lives of thousands of disabled people.
An AI ban as proposed would destroy hope for improving the lives of millions of disabled people all over the world, and condemn them to a life of more suffering and isolation.
There is an incredible amount of innovation going on around the world using AI to improve the lives of the disabled with a range of different disabilities.
For example, most recently, Italian researchers reported in PsyPost have looked at how an embodied robot using ChatGPT could help people with autism.Describing their approach:
A team of Italian researchers have developed an innovative approach to assist individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using a humanoid robot named Pepper, integrated with OpenAI’s advanced conversational artificial intelligence. This novel system aims to enhance social interaction, communication, and cognitive skills for individuals with ASD, offering a promising avenue in therapeutic and educational settings.
The research had promising results as they described:
“The key takeaway is the potential of advanced technology, such as AI-integrated social robots, to aid in cognitive functioning for individuals with ASD,” Bilotta told PsyPost. “This study shows how these technologies can be adapted to meet specific educational needs, offering personalized and interactive experiences that can complement traditional approaches.”
And in particular what they found most striking:
“The adaptability and responsiveness of the ChatGPT-integrated Pepper robot in simulating real-life interaction scenarios with ASD subjects were particularly striking,” Bilotta told PsyPost. “The nuanced and context-aware dialogues initiated by the robot demonstrated a level of engagement that was encouraging for future educational and possibly, with the support of an expert, therapeutic applications.”
The full paper about this promising research can be found here.
Creating New Narratives Around AI
The lack of coverage in the media about the needs of the disabled, and in my view the way the needs of the disabled are deliberately ignored and sidelined by the media is something I find appalling.
Do you feel unhappy about that too?
It's perhaps not surprising then that public trust in the mainstream media and journalism continues to collapse across the world, given their ongoing failure to represent the diverse needs and voices of the people they claim to represent.
The lack of diverse perspectives in the media about AI, often confusing dystopian fantasies for facts that create misinformation and fear, further illustrates this failure.
This lack of diverse perspectives about AI, which so often ignores the needs of the disabled, risks 'creating false expectations and perceptions that are hard to overturn' as the Royal Society rightly points out, and are harmful not only for the disabled but for society more generally.
Journalists and media organisations need to examine their conscience & editorial policies, and consider including a wider range of perspectives on AI that they have previously ignored.
The needs and voices of the disabled in relation to AI, must no longer be silenced. I hope you would agree.