News

Montreal AI Ethics Insitute’s The State of AI Ethics Panel (Dec 2020)

National Science Policy Symposium 2020 Panel: Systemic Barriers in Equity and Access to Technology

Visual Activism: Erin McElroy | UC Berkeley Arts Research Center

Discriminating Systems: Gender, Race and Power in Artificial Intelligence at the Indiana University Informatics Colloquium

Informal Livelihoods and the Gig Economy | Amit Basole and Noopur Raval | Rethinking Economics India

Twitter probes alleged racial bias in image cropping feature

"This is another in a long and weary litany of examples that show automated systems encoding racism, misogyny and histories of discrimination."

Questions swirl about possible racial bias in Twitter

Sarah Myers West, a postdoctoral researcher at New York University’s AI Now Institute, told CNBC: “Algorithmic discrimination is a reflection of larger patterns of social inequality … it’s about much more than just bias on the part of engineers or even bias in datasets, and will require more than a shallow understanding or set of fixes.”

Fake Data Could Help Solve Machine Learning’s Bias Problem—if We Let It

“That process of creating a synthetic data set, depending on what you’re extrapolating from and how you’re doing that, can actually exacerbate the biases,” says Deb Raji, a technology fellow at the AI Now Institute.

‘Encoding the same biases’: Artificial intelligence’s limitations in coronavirus response

"We were seeing AI being used extensively before Covid-19, and during Covid-19 you're seeing an increase in the use of some types of tools," noted Meredith Whittaker, a distinguished research scientist at New York University in the US and co-founder of AI Now Institute, which carries out research examining the social implications of AI.

AI Weekly: A biometric surveillance state is not inevitable, says AI Now Institute

In a new report called “Regulating Biometrics: Global Approaches and Urgent Questions,” the AI Now Institute says regulation advocates are beginning to believe a biometric surveillance state is not inevitable.

Property tech companies are helping landlords spy on residents, collect their data, and even evict them. Critics are calling it an invasion of privacy that could reinforce inequality.

"It clearly seems to be a racist way of saying: 'Look through your tenants who you don't want to live here and replace them with tenants who you do,'" Erin McElroy, a researcher at the AI Now Institute and cofounder of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, told Business Insider.

All Is Fair In Mortgage Lending And Fintech?

As Sarah Myers West, a postdoctoral researcher at New York University’s AI Now Institute explained to CBS News, “We turn to machine learning in the hopes that they'll be more objective, but really what they're doing is reflecting and amplifying historical patterns of discrimination and often in ways that are harder to see.”

Skewed Grading Algorithms Fuel Backlash Beyond the Classroom

Inioluwa Deborah Raji, a fellow at NYU’s AI Now Institute, which works on algorithmic fairness, says people reaching for a technical solution often embrace statistical formulas too tightly. Even well-supported pushback is perceived as highlighting a need for small fixes, rather than reconsidering whether the system is fit for the purpose.

Ambivalence in the (Private) Public Sphere: How Global Digital Activists Navigate Risk

Predictive policing algorithms are racist. They need to be dismantled.

Police like the idea of tools that give them a heads-up and allow them to intervene early because they think it keeps crime rates down, says Rashida Richardson, director of policy research at the AI Now Institute.

AI gatekeepers are taking baby steps toward raising ethical standards

“The research community is beginning to acknowledge that we have some level of responsibility for how these systems are used,” says Inioluwa Raji, a tech fellow at NYU’s AI Now Institute.

Big Tech juggles ethical pledges on facial recognition with corporate interests

"It shows that organizing and socially informed research works," said Meredith Whittaker, co-founder of the AI Now Institute, which researches the social implications of artificial intelligence. "But do I think the companies have really had a change of heart and will work to dismantle racist oppressive systems? No."

NYC School of Data 2020