Today, a conversation about equity and AI. Tom’s guest is Dr. Timnit Gebru, a computer scientist and tech expert who is working to reduce the negative effects of artificial intelligence.
In 2021, Dr. Gebru founded the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), a non-profit she currently serves as executive director. Before that, she was employed at Google, where she co-led the Ethical Artificial Intelligence research team. She was fired in 2020 — although the company insists she resigned — after a dispute with Google about its suppression of some of her research, and her criticism of the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. She had previously done ground-breaking work at Apple and Microsoft.
Dr. Gebru is also the co-founder of Black in AI, a nonprofit whose stated mission is “to increase the presence, inclusion, visibility and health of Black people in the field of AI.”
Dr. Timnit Gebru joined us on Zoom from San Francisco.
A reminder that because our show was pre-recorded, we can’t take any new calls or comments.