Black in AI

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Black in AI
Formation2017; 5 years ago (2017)
FounderRediet Abebe, Timnit Gebru
HeadquartersPalo Alto, California, U.S.
Websitehttps://blackinai.github.io/#/
Ruha Benjamin and her book, Race After Technology at the 2019 Black in AI event

Black in AI, formally called the Black in AI Workshop, is a technology research organization and affinity group, founded by computer scientists Timnit Gebru and Rediet Abebe in 2017.[1][2][3] It started as a conference workshop, later pivoting into an organization. Black in AI increases the presence and inclusion of Black people in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) by creating space for sharing ideas, fostering collaborations, mentorship and advocacy.[4][5][6]

History[]

Black in AI was created in 2017 to address issues of lack of diversity in AI workshops,[4] and was started as its own workshop within the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) conference.[7] Because of algorithmic bias, ethical issues, and underrepresentation of Black people in AI roles; there has been an ongoing need for unity within the AI community to have focus on these issues. Black in AI has strived to continue the progress of improving the presence of people of color in the field of artificial intelligence.[8]

In 2018 and 2019, the Black in AI workshop had many immigration visa issues to Canada, which spurred the conference to be planned for 2020 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.[9][10][11] On December 7th, 2020, Black in AI held its 4th annual workshop and 1st virtual workshop (due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

In 2021, Black in AI, alongside the groups Queer in AI, and Widening NLP released a public statement refusing funding from Google, in an act of protest of Google's treatment of Timnit Gebru, Margaret Mitchell, and April Christina Curley in the events that occurred in December 2020.[12][13]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ ""We're in a diversity crisis": cofounder of Black in AI on what's poisoning algorithms in our lives". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  2. ^ Hao, Karen (December 4, 2020). "We read the paper that forced Timnit Gebru out of Google. Here's what it says". MIT Technology Review. Archived from the original on 2020-12-05. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  3. ^ Crowell, Rachel (2021-04-01). "A Computer Scientist Who Tackles Inequality Through Algorithms". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  4. ^ a b "What Really Happened When Google Ousted Timnit Gebru". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  5. ^ "Black AI Workshop Becomes Latest Flashpoint in Techs Culture War". Bloomberg.com. October 20, 2017. Archived from the original on 2017-10-20. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  6. ^ Walton, Abriana (2021-03-03). "Meet Rediet Abebe, the Ethiopian Computer Scientist Using AI to Fight Socioeconomic Inequality". AfroTech. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  7. ^ "How one conference embraced diversity". Nature. 564 (7735): 161–162. 2018-12-12. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-07718-x. PMID 31123357. S2CID 54481549.
  8. ^ Conroy, Gemma; Jia, Hepeng; Plackett, Benjamin; Tay, Andy (2020-12-09). "Six researchers who are shaping the future of artificial intelligence". Nature. 588 (7837): S114–S117. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-03411-0. PMID 33299216.
  9. ^ Smith, Craig S. (2019-11-19). "Dealing With Bias in Artificial Intelligence". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  10. ^ Hutson, Matthew (2018-12-12). "Canada denied visas to dozens of Africans for a big artificial intelligence conference". Science magazine. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Archived from the original on 2018-12-13. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  11. ^ "Canada refuses visas to over a dozen African AI researchers". BBC News. 2019-11-15. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  12. ^ Johnson, Khari. "Black and Queer AI Groups Say They'll Spurn Google Funding". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
  13. ^ Tiku, Nitasha (2021-03-04). "Google's approach to historically Black schools helps explain why there are few Black engineers in Big Tech". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-12-22.

External links[]


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