In brief
JoAnn Stonier, Mastercard's chief data officer, argues that AI is only as fair as the data it learns from. Every data set carries gaps and bias, and that is acceptable if teams know what is in it, what is missing, and design questions that fit its limits. Used with that care, AI can reveal hidden bias and help organizations become more inclusive.
The tension is between the promise of AI and the slow, unglamorous work needed to deliver it. Stonier stresses that nothing she describes is easy: it means tracing data lineage, watching for model drift, scrutinizing vendors, and building teams that bridge business, technology and policy. Her design training treats constraints as materials to work with, not obstacles.
Facts
Stated by the speakers. Each quote matches the transcript, which shows what was said, not that it is true.
JoAnn Stonier helped Mastercard become compliant with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) while she was its chief privacy officer.
“I helped, um, the company become GDPR compliant, which really was, I think, uh, the moment in time when many, many companies were coming to the place where they needed to operationalize a lot of data risk.”
0:13:44 · JoAnn Stonier · GDPR
Mastercard uses a process called privacy by design to build privacy and security into its products.
“We had a whole process called privacy by design. We still use that process.”
0:14:10 · JoAnn Stonier · Privacy by design
Before Mastercard, JoAnn Stonier was chief privacy officer at American Express, where she also held other roles.
“I was previously the chief privacy officer for American Express.”
0:15:01 · JoAnn Stonier · Career
JoAnn Stonier teaches business strategy in the design management master's program at Pratt Institute.
“I teach in their design management master's program, and I teach business strategy”
0:16:27 · JoAnn Stonier · Teaching
Stonier says 1910 United States voter rolls inherently omit women and people of color, so they suit some inquiries but not others.
“you need to know that inherently that data set is going to miss women. It's going to be missing people of color.”
0:06:13 · JoAnn Stonier · Data bias · 1910
Stonier suspects airlines sized overhead bins using average heights that did not account for enough women, as an example of averages that are not fit for purpose.
“it was on very average heights, okay, but the average height did not include enough women.”
0:09:08 · JoAnn Stonier · Design bias
Stonier says the first generation of data analytics used rules that acted when a set condition appeared in the data.
“we were creating algorithms or analytic questions that really asked the question of this is the question. If this condition exists in the data set, then do something, right?”
0:04:38 · JoAnn Stonier · Rules-based analytics
Stonier says machine learning starts from the data set and asks what it reveals, in contrast with rules-based analytics.
“Instead, we take the data set and say, what does the data tell us? What does the data tell us, and what does the machine then learn from them?”
0:05:16 · JoAnn Stonier · Machine learning
Mastercard's data teams check early model outputs for model drift and accuracy, so input inequities are not amplified.
“we're gonna be looking for the model drift. We're gonna be looking to see is this an accurate output?”
0:08:44 · JoAnn Stonier · Model drift
Stonier says teams should trace data lineage, quality and consistency before using data sets in analysis.
“you've got to back up the data food chain to understand your data lineage, understand the quality, the consistency of the data sets”
0:07:53 · JoAnn Stonier · Data lineage
Stonier says data can be restricted by contract or by its type, such as financial data, which constrains how Mastercard may use it.
“Can we not use the data because it's contractually restricted, or it's restricted because it's a certain type of data, it's financial data, right?”
0:12:39 · JoAnn Stonier · Data restrictions
Stonier's team at Mastercard includes people with both law and engineering degrees, who translate between business, technical and regulatory domains.
“I have lawyers and engineers on my team, right? They have both degrees.”
0:18:09 · JoAnn Stonier · Team skills
Stonier says that when COVID began, many merchants moved online and sought data and guidance to make decisions.
“So many merchants were going online. If they didn't have a huge presence, they needed to create one.”
0:19:22 · JoAnn Stonier · COVID-19 · 2020
Stonier gives designing a look-alike fraud model that uses only synthetic data as an example of a constraint-driven data challenge.
“the outcome is to design a look-alike model for fraud that only utilizes, you know, synthetic data, right?”
0:17:22 · JoAnn Stonier · Synthetic data
Mastercard uses a specific framework for ethical AI and is applying it to different contexts.
“So we have a very specific framework that we're using around ethical AI, but then we're really getting into the nitty-gritty around different kinds of context.”
0:07:17 · JoAnn Stonier · Ethical AI
Sam Ransbotham says Mastercard chooses projects by strategic focus rather than choosing a project in order to do AI.
“they are picking projects based on their strategic focus rather than picking a project to do AI.”
0:22:39 · Sam Ransbotham · AI strategy
Shervin Khodabandeh says the chief data officer role is somewhat precarious, and many CDOs last only a couple of years.
“the CDO role is actually a, you know, somewhat precarious role.”
0:21:40 · Shervin Khodabandeh · CDO role