Companies such as Withings and Fitbit tout composition analysis as providing self-knowledge and the ability to make more informed decisions. However, these aspirational statements elide the reality that these numbers are a product of proprietary regression equations that require a binary sex/gender as their input. In this talk, we’ll discuss results from a recent paper […]
About this event Amidst the massive hype and investment, Web3 has faced considerable pushback. Much of the criticism has been dismissive of the technology and community outright. On the other hand, many of Web3's most ardent supporters seem to believe that decentralization is necessarily a path towards a better world, echoing some of the same […]
Speaker: Dr. Ronald Metoyer Abstract: The divide between the “haves” and “have-nots” in today’s society is greater than ever and one could argue that technology is largely developed in service to the “haves” where there is a clear financial incentive. There is simply little money to be made from vulnerable populations (e.g., economically disadvantaged, homeless, elderly) […]
About this event “Enough with the breathless dreams of digital utopias and poisonous polemics about technological dystopias! In System Error, we finally have a book about the digital revolution that is serious rather than sensationalistic. Read this if you want to understand how to shape our technological future and reinvigorate democracy along the way.” — […]
In the half-decade since the 2016 election, misinformation bots have been prominent in research agendas in law, political science, and other fields, as scholars have increasingly documented the extent to which such forces were both operational and impactful. The perceived threat, one that was closely watched in the 2020 election, was to the proper functioning […]
“The Quest for Ethical Artificial Intelligence” The Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR) was launched in December 2021 by Timnit Gebru as a space for independent, community-rooted AI research, free from Big Tech’s pervasive influence. Gebru believes that the harms embedded in AI technology are preventable and that when its production and deployment include diverse […]
Trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) has become an important topic because trust in AI systems and their creators has been lost. Researchers, corporations, and governments have long and painful histories of excluding marginalized groups from technology development, deployment, and oversight. As a result, these technologies are less useful and even harmful to minoritized communities. We argue […]
Race and technology are closely intertwined, continuously influencing and reshaping one another. While algorithmic bias has received increased attention in recent years, it is only one of the many ways that technology and race intersect in computer science, public health, digital media, gaming, surveillance, and other domains. To build inclusive technologies that empower us all, […]
Equitable and ethical data practices empower healthcare professionals, medical practitioners, data experts, and leaders in mitigating harm and promoting the eradication of health disparities. Join us and strengthen your skills in this 4-week workshop. Course outline Session 1: March 31 – Intro to health equity Session 2: April 7 – Data equity in healthcare Session […]
Join us on International Transgender Day of Visibility, for a conversation on algorithms, social media, protective community use policies, and how “echo chambers” can harm or protect the LGBTQIA community. The event is hosted by the School of Data Science and will be moderated by Donna Price, Chair of the Albemarle County, Virginia, Board of […]
“Mind the Gap: From Predictions to ML-Informed Decisions” Machine learning (ML) is increasingly being used to support decision-making in many organizational settings. However, there is currently a gap between the design and evaluation of ML algorithms and the functional role of these algorithms as tools for decision support. The first part of the talk will […]
About the Talk In recent years, conflicts over values and practices have emerged in hacking and free/libre and open source (FLOSS) communities, centering around diversity and inclusion. This talk features ethnographic research on feminist hacking and "diversity" efforts in mainstream hacking and FLOSS. It explores how participants work through thorny issues of inclusion through their […]
Su Lin Blodgett, a postdoctoral researcher in the Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics (FATE) group at Microsoft Research Montréal, will deliver a talk as part of CSRAI's Young Achievers Symposium. The Young Achievers Symposium highlights early career researchers in diverse fields of AI for social impact. The symposium series seeks to focus on emerging research, […]
Many believe the child welfare system protects children from abuse. But as Torn Apart uncovers, this system is designed to punish Black families. Drawing on decades of research, legal scholar and sociologist Dorothy Roberts reveals that the child welfare system is better understood as a “family policing system” that collaborates with law enforcement and prisons […]
"Challenges and Frontiers in Deploying Transparent Machine Learning" Explainable machine learning offers the potential to provide stakeholders with insights into model behavior, yet there is little understanding of how organizations use these methods in practice. In this talk, Bhatt will discuss recent research exploring how organizations view and use explainability. He finds that most deployments […]
Race and technology are closely intertwined, continuously influencing and reshaping one another. While algorithmic bias has received increased attention in recent years, it is only one of the many ways that technology and race intersect in computer science, public health, digital media, gaming, surveillance, and other domains. To build inclusive technologies that empower us all, […]