Opinion. Coinciding with the celebration of World Internet Day, UDIT, University of Design, Innovation and Technology warns about the invisible risks of hyperconnectivity and the increasingly decisive role of artificial intelligence in everyday life. From the institution, it is alerted to the urgent need for Understand and address algorithmic biases that affect information, decision making and digital rights.
“We live surrounded by devices, platforms and digital services that, without us noticing, constantly collect data through our clicks, reproductions or locations”explains Sandra Garrido, coordinator of the UDIT technology area. “These data are transformed into fuel for customization algorithms that decide what we read, what do we see or even what we think”.
According to Garrido, this extreme customization not only conditions our decisions, but can reinforce digital bubbles, feed polarization and propagate misinformation. “All this happens thanks to an invisible infrastructure that also supports another great phenomenon of our time: artificial intelligence,” he adds.
Identify biases: an essential competition in the AI era
From UDIT it insists that artificial intelligence systems are not neutral. “The algorithms reflect the decisions of those who design them and the data with which they train”Garrido points out. When these data reproduce historical inequalities or cultural prejudices, models can amplify those distortions, generating discriminatory results, invisible collective or perpetuating stereotypes.
With the aim of training conscious and critical professionals, UDIT identifies some of the most common biases to which users are exposed in their relationship with artificial intelligence, so that they have the necessary tools to prevent their consequences.
- Lack of diversity in results: When algorithms prioritize profiles, products or ideas that always respond to the same pattern (for example, young people, white or certain cultural contexts), it is a indication of a low representativeness in training data. This lack of diversity can exclude or invisible entire groups, limiting access to opportunities or resources of those who do not conform to the predominant profile.
- Repetitive Results The Extremes: The logic of many digital systems seeks to maximize the user’s permanence showing content that has already captured their interest. This can cause continuous exposure to aligned information with your ideas or emotions, without access to alternative views. This phenomenon is known as a filter bubble, and contributes to polarization and the radicalization of opinions.
- Inequality of treatment or access: In some digital services or electronic commerce platforms, algorithms can generate different results according to the user profile, which translates into Price variations, personalized recommendations or waiting times. These segmentations, although designed for commercial purposes, can discriminate against certain groups for reasons such as geographical location, their socioeconomic level or previous activity on the platform.
- Lack of transparency: Many artificial intelligence based systems function as black boxes, without offering clear explanation about how decisions affect users. This can be especially problematic in sensitive processes such as the granting of a loan or the evaluation of a labor candidacy, where the lack of information hinders review and accountability.
- Algorithmic confirmation bias: Algorithms learn from our past behaviors: what do we read, what do we see or what we Buy. In doing so, they tend to show us more of the same, reinforcing our previous beliefs and limiting our exposure to new information. This effect reduces the diversity of perspectives and hinders the formation of a critical opinion.
- Automation bias: The perception that the systems based on AI are infallible can lead to users and the professionals themselves to accept their results without questioning them. This excessive trust, known as automation bias, can lead to erroneous decisions in all types of areas.
Given this panorama, users are not mere passive receptors. There are tools and strategies that users can implement to make more conscious and critical use of technology. Among these, “Digital education is undoubtedly the most powerful tool to recover control over our online experience”concludes Garrido.
About UDIT
UDIT is the first and only university specialized in design, innovation and technology in Spain and represents the culmination of the more than 20 years of the educational project of the prestigious ESNE design school.
In the 2024-2025 course, UDIT’s training offer is made up of official university degrees: fashion design, multimedia and graphic design, interior design, product design, design and development of video games and virtual environments, audiovisual design and illustration, management and communication of fashion, animation and advertising and brand creation, full-stack development and data science and artificial intelligence. In addition, for the next year the degree in robotics will begin to impart.
