FICO's Chief Data Analytics Officer Speaks to Students About AI Bias

Students Given the Opportunity to Investigate Bias in Mortgage Loans

 

MEDIA CONTACT: David Thompson, dlthompson@bowiestate.edu, 301-860-4311

(BOWIE, Md.) – Dr. Scott Zoldi, chief data analytics officer at FICO, spoke to BSU students on Monday about AI bias in conjunction with the launch of the company’s new Educational Analytics Challenge pilot program to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in data science, engineering and technology fields. Zoldi said students will be working to solve real-world AI bias problems.

“Bowie State students will be working with data from mortgage loans that have been approved or denied to identify potential bias,” said Zoldi. “We have to educate people on understanding how AI can be used to manipulate data and why that is detrimental to everyone.”

BSU students participating in the pilot project will conduct mortgage data investigations, remove bias from data and build a bias free mortgage decision model. The goal is to make models more inclusive and ensure they are not biased.

“We feel fortunate and are excited to have our students participating in this AI bias pilot project with FICO,” said Dr. Velma Latson, project advisor and professor in BSU’s technology and security department. “What they learn from this experience will definitely help them with their courses at the university and better prepare them for jobs in the industry after they graduate. BSU looks forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship working with FICO.” 

Zoldi said AI presents tremendous opportunities to provide benefits to society but has numerous challenges including Fake Drake, AI powered crime, AI bias, and mistaken and/or stolen identity due to AI. He believes with responsible robust AI individuals must take time for proper data preparation, analysis, model development and scenario testing.

“People also need to understand the difference between AI and machine learning,” said Zoldi. “AI is a technology that performs programmed cognitive tasks at a super human level. Machine learning, which is designed to predict, is the science of algorithms which learn relationships from data rather than from explicit programming.”

Zoldi said FICO plans to expand the AI bias program to other HBCUs. Presently, Bowie State and Alabama A&M are the only two HBCUs in the pilot project.

FICO is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO scores are used by 90% of the top U.S. lending institutions to help make accurate, reliable and fast credit risk decisions across the customer lifecycle.

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Bowie State University (BSU) is an important higher education access portal for qualified persons from diverse academic and socioeconomic backgrounds, seeking a high-quality and affordable public comprehensive university. The university places special emphasis on the science, technology, cybersecurity, teacher education, business and nursing disciplines within the context of a liberal arts education. For more information about BSU, visit bowiestate.edu.