A friend of mine who is a computer scientist describes artificial intelligence as a Rorschach test. Invented by the psychologist Hermann Rorschach in the early 20th century, the famous test involves showing subjects a series of ink blots and asking them to describe what they see. The test is a psychoanalytic technique to help determine a psychological profile of the patient.

When my friend calls AI a Rorschach test, he means that what we see in AI says more about us than it does about the AI. I have seen this phenomenon firsthand. I recently participated in a workshop aimed at developing ethical guidelines for research using AI. The workshop participants came from a wide variety of backgrounds: higher ed, K-12 education, data science, mathematics, public........

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