The Phony Patriots of Silicon Valley
Meredith Whittaker, a co-founder of the AI Now Institute at New York University and a former Google employee, characterized the tech industry’s scaremongering about China as a tactical move meant to deflect criticism.
The New York Times
Aug 12, 2019
How Amazon will take over your house
On paper, Amazon is giving out cool stuff for free. But the company is also getting "extremely inexpensive access to record some of the most intimate parts of your life," says Meredith Whittaker, co-founder of the AI Now Institute.
Axios
Jul 31, 2019
The Racist History Behind Facial Recognition
Customers have used “affect recognition” for everything from measuring how people react to ads to helping children with autism develop social and emotional skills, but a report from the A.I. Now Institute argues that the technology is being “applied in unethical and irresponsible ways.”
The New York Times
Jul 10, 2019
This AI Software Is ‘Coaching’ Customer Service Workers. Soon It Could Be Bossing You Around, Too
Meredith Whittaker, a distinguished research scientist at New York University and co-director of the AI Now Institute, argues that Cogito could become another example of AI software that’s difficult for people to understand, but ends up having a massive impact on their lives regardless.
Time
Jul 8, 2019
Artificial Intelligence Makes Boosting ID Theft Protection Critical, House AI Task Force Chair Warns
“AI systems have evidenced a persistent pattern of gender and race-based discrimination. I have yet to encounter an AI system that was biased against white men,” Meredith Whittaker, co-founder of the AI Now Institute at New York University.
Forbes
Jun 27, 2019
Alphabet’s Annual Meeting Draws Protests on Multitude of Issues
Google engineer Irene Knapp spoke in favor of a proposal to tie executive compensation to the company’s progress on diversity and inclusion. Knapp cited research by the group AI Now showing that bias in artificial intelligence technology is related to the lack of diversity in the industry.
Bloomberg
Jun 19, 2019
Exposing the Bias Embedded in Tech
The other panel member, Meredith Whittaker, a founder and a director of the AI Now Institute at New York University, noted that voice recognition tools that rely on A.I. often don’t recognize higher-pitched voices.
The New York Times
Jun 17, 2019
Google walkout organizer leaves company after claims of retaliation
Whittaker said she was told that, in order to stay at the company, she would have to “abandon” her work on AI ethics and her role at AI Now Institute, a research center she cofounded at New York University.
ABC News
Jun 7, 2019
Advertisers want to mine your brain
"The people who are able to apply and market these technologies are large brands and corporations," says Meredith Whittaker, co-founder of the AI Now Institute. "This is not an equal-access set of technologies. They're used by some on others."
Axios
Jun 3, 2019
San Francisco banned facial recognition tech. Here’s why other cities should too.
Even if all the technical issues were to be fixed and facial recognition tech completely de-biased, would that stop the software from harming our society when it’s deployed in the real world? Not necessarily, as a new report from the AI Now Institute explains.
Vox
May 16, 2019
Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter says AI should never have the “true autonomy” to kill
What do you do with a group of people — again, going back to regulation — who have never been regulated to start to put guardrails in place? How do you get them to stick to those or think of them as a good thing?
Vox
May 13, 2019
Cameras Everywhere: The Ethics Of Eyes In The Sky
In December AI Now reported on a subclass of facial recognition that supposedly measures your affect with claims that it can detect your true personality, your inner feelings and even your mental health based on images or video of your face. AI Now warned against using these tools for hiring or access to insurance or policing.
Forbes
May 8, 2019
Google workers protest ‘culture of retaliation’ with sit-in
Whittaker wrote that she was informed that her role at the company would be “changed dramatically,” and that she would have to abandon her outside work on artificial intelligence ethics at AI Now Institute, an organization she co-founded.
LA Times
May 1, 2019
Two women led a protest at Google. Is Google retaliating against them now?
The news that Ms. Whittaker’s role would be overhauled came right after Google disbanded its external ethics review board, and at her NYU institute and elsewhere, she has agitated for safeguards around nascent technologies such as facial recognition.
The Washington Post
Apr 27, 2019
Why Tech Billionaires Are Spending To Restrain Artificial Intelligence
A report from New York University’s AI Now Institute found that a predominantly white male coding workforce is causing bias in algorithms.
Forbes
Apr 26, 2019
Google ‘retaliating against harassment protest organisers’
Meredith Whittaker, who co-signed the email, said her role had also been “changed dramatically”.
BBC
Apr 23, 2019
Google Walkout Organizers Say They Faced Retaliation
Walkout Organizers Say They Faced Retaliation The other email author, Whittaker describes how she was told she would be forced “to abandon my work on AI ethics and the AI Now Institute which I cofounded.” The two women express that they found a common theme among the stories they collected from the walkout, “People who stand up and report discrimination, abuse, and unethical conduct are punished, sidelined, and pushed out.”
Wired
Apr 23, 2019
Some AI just shouldn’t exist
One of the authors on the AI Now report, Sarah Myers West, said in a press call that such “algorithmic gaydar” systems should not be built, both because they’re based on pseudoscience and because they put LGBTQ people at risk. “The researchers say, ‘We’re just doing this because we want to show how scary these systems can be,’ but then they explain in explicit detail how you would create such a system,” she said.
Vox
Apr 19, 2019
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