AI, Accountability, and Power

In November 2018 mass protests by Google workers drew attention to deep problems with bias and discrimination at some of the largest Silicon Valley companies. Meredith Whittaker, co-director of the AI Now Institute and one of the organizers of the Google Walkout, joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how technology workers can influence progress in culture and technology.

In this podcast, they also discuss:

• How discriminatory culture influences the values embedded in AI.
• Whether ethics officers can actually influence firms and their products.
• Why responsible AI design must include recognition of the shadow workforce helping to create it.

Further reading:

• “Discriminating Systems: Gender, Race, and Power in AI” (AI Now Institute, April 2019)
• “Exposing the Bias Embedded in Tech” (The New York Times, June 17, 2019)
• “’People Fix Things, Tech Doesn’t Fix Things’” (Tech Crunch, October 21, 2019)

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@azeem
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