Using AI for Progressive Social Change
kama.ai is an Indigenous-owned company that specializes in responsible AI. Its value-based, emotionally responsive technology provides opportunities for enterprises to meaningfully engage with their clientele in real time. While kama.ai’s Designed Experiential Intelligence™ system can work in tandem with generative AI (GenAI) systems, kamaDEI relies on human review to ensure only accurate information is delivered to users. In an era that is quickly being defined and driven by Large Language Models such as Chat GPT, which are known to hallucinate biased, false, and incomplete responses, AI must take a human-centred approach. Since kama.ai’s inception, CEO and founder Brian Ritchie has believed in working with AI to connect communities while preserving the rights of enterprises, employees, public users, and other related stakeholders.
Though there is much conversation surrounding the potential threats of AI, there is equal opportunity for this technology to precipitate positive social and environmental change. In a recent workshop hosted by Forus, Ritchie discussed what makes a responsible and ethical AI and how it can be used to assist an organization in communicating with its stakeholders based on their authentic words and messaging. That’s exactly what kama.ai is doing with its customers RESEAU and Wahkowtoin.
The RESEAU Centre for Mobilizing Innovation is a not-for-profit organization that brings resources together to create clean water solutions for Indigenous and remote communities. Through their Community Circle™ process, RESEAU engages community members, suppliers, researchers and other stakeholders to find culturally appropriate solutions for communities. Recently, kama.ai’s conversational intelligence program was integrated into a water operator training application as the ‘Virtual Support Assistant’ to allow water operators in training the ability to locate general and course-specific information about water treatment systems.
Using the Operator’s Walkthrough Lab mobile app, “OWL”, operators in training can gain knowledge about water systems and prepare to write their certification exam without leaving the community.
“AI can be a fantastic tool for progressive social change,” says Ritchie. “Our vision of deploying Advanced Virtual Assistants (AVAs) in the service of humanity can mean many things. It can include helping enterprises support their customers and employees, but it can also mean supporting Indigenous community members to build capacity without having to leave their communities like we are doing with the RESEAU Centre for Mobilizing Innovation.”
Another key issue regarding Artificial Intelligence is concern that Virtual Assistants may provide biased responses or untrue information that may guide users in the wrong direction and negatively affect the brand of the host organization. For these reasons, it is important for organizations to seek out responsible and ethical forms of AI, perhaps especially when considering the promotion of social change.
At kama.ai, our AVAs are informed by the experience of humans from the host organizations and guided by human values. This approach does not preclude the use of Generative AI as research, summarization, and drafting tools. Still, the final information must be validated in advance by the organization’s stakeholders, ensuring that accurate and actionable information is delivered to the people who need it at any point in time.
The proverb “knowledge is power” may be clichéed, but it holds a salient truth: with increased accessibility to accurate, actionable, and ethical information, community stakeholders are empowered to enact positive societal and organizational changes. While AI cannot replace the wisdom and experience of real people, it can assist persons of all identities to share their collective knowledge while empowering communities of interest, organizations, and enterprises to architect safe, sustainable futures for generations to come.
For additional information or to book a demo, please contact Michael Sasarman, Partner Sales, CX, and Implementation.
