Who is responsible for eliminating technology bias? Engineers, expert says.
By Vanessa Vinson
Artificial intelligence is transforming how people work, communicate and make decisions. It already influences hiring, health care, criminal justice and social media.
But as these technologies become more embedded in society, an important question remains: Who ensures they work fairly for everyone?
For Erin A. Cech, associate professor of sociology and associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, the answer begins with the engineers who design them.
“Engineers are usually the people in the room who understand these technologies the best,” Cech said. “They are the ones who have the expertise to think about the potential implications of these technologies down the line. If we’re serious about reducing tech bias, we need to understand whether engineers recognize that responsibility.”
Cech’s latest research investigates how engineers think about technology bias and the intended and unintended ways technology can reinforce or amplify social inequality.
While public attention has focused on high-profile examples, such as facial recognition systems that perform differently across skin tones or AI tools that reproduce historical biases, far less is known about how engineers themselves perceive these issues. Her interest in the topic began long before artificial intelligence became part of everyday conversation.
“Engineers are usually the people in the room who understand these technologies the best. They are the ones who have the expertise to think about the potential implications of these technologies down the line. If we’re serious about reducing tech bias, we need to understand whether engineers recognize that responsibility.”
As an undergraduate studying electrical engineering, Cech became interested in assistive technology after watching her blind grandmother navigate daily life. That experience sparked broader questions about the relationship between technology and public welfare, ultimately leading her to pursue a doctorate in sociology.
“I’ve long been interested in how engineers think about their responsibility to safety and public welfare and how engineering education can promote or undermine those commitments,” she said.
To better understand how engineers think about technology bias, Cech surveyed practicing engineers about whether technologies can be biased and whether addressing bias is part of their professional responsibility. She found a disconnect between how engineers viewed technology and their role in addressing bias. About one-third of the engineers Cech surveyed did not believe technology could be biased at all.
“The very people who create these technologies don’t always recognize that technologies can harbor and help reproduce social biases, let alone feel a responsibility to do something about it,” she said.
The study also found that engineers who strongly viewed technical work as separate from social, political or cultural concerns were significantly less likely to recognize technology bias or believe addressing it was part of their professional responsibility. That finding suggests the challenge extends beyond individual opinions to the broader culture of engineering itself.
For Cech, the findings raise broader questions about the role engineers play in protecting the public as technology becomes increasingly woven into everyday life.
“Our society relies on professionals to serve as public welfare watchdogs,” she said. “Lawyers shepherd clients through the legal system. Physicians safeguard patient health. Engineers have a similar responsibility for the technologies that increasingly shape our lives.”
Like physicians and lawyers, engineers possess specialized knowledge that most people do not. That expertise gives them both an opportunity and a responsibility to recognize potential harms before technologies reach the public. Cech’s research suggests that preparing engineers for that role is just as important as teaching the technical skills needed to design new technologies.
That responsibility, she argues, should begin in the classroom. Earlier research by Cech followed engineering students from their first year of college through the early stages of their careers. She found that students became less engaged with questions of ethics and public welfare over the course of their engineering education, suggesting that technical training often overshadows social impact considerations.
More recently, Cech and U-M engineering professor Cynthia J. Finelli found that engineers who received instruction about ethics and public welfare as part of their core engineering courses, not separate electives or workplace training, were more likely to recognize those responsibilities later in their careers.
The findings suggest that ethics is most effective when it is taught alongside technical engineering concepts, rather than bracketed off as a stand-alone topic.
“We have to teach these responsibilities as seriously as we teach technical concepts,” Cech said. “Students should understand that considering the impact of their work is just as much a part of engineering as making sure a design functions.”
At U-M, Cech’s collaboration with Finelli has allowed her to bridge sociology and engineering to better understand how professional culture shapes technology development.
“Michigan is not a ‘stay in your lane’ environment,” she said. “The university values interdisciplinary work and asks, ‘How can we help you contribute to knowledge and innovation?'”
Looking ahead, Cech and Finelli are expanding their research to explore how STEM professionals respond to ethical dilemmas throughout their careers and what prepares them to navigate those challenges. They are also following recent engineering graduates into the workforce to understand how well their education prepared them for the ethical and societal questions they now encounter.
Ultimately, Cech hopes the next generation of engineers will see protecting the public as an essential part of being an engineer and not a responsibility separate from technical work.
“They not only have the opportunity, but the responsibility, to consider the impact of the technologies they create,” she said. “That is part of what it means to be an engineer.”