Women in AI Ethics is hosting The 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics Annual Summit 2021 to inspire and guide us on the concrete actions we can collectively take for a more responsible and ethical AI/tech future.
When: Thursday 2 December 2021, 8:00am (PDT) / 4:00pm (GMT)
Where: Online,
Register
Experts will discuss everything from protecting tech whistleblowers to big tech accountability and digital privacy issues.
Agenda
Opening Remarks
Speaker/s: Mia Shah-Dand, founder Women in AI Ethics & Lighthouse3
8.00am - 8.15am PDT
Opening Keynote - Holding Big Tech Accountable
Speaker/s: Dr.Timnit Gebru, Independent Scholar
8.20am – 8.50am PDT
Dr. Timnit Gebru is a much-respected and admired scholar in the Artificial Intelligence space. Her seminal research has led to meaningful ways for combatting harms from biased algorithmic models & systems. At Google, she was a co-lead for their ethical AI team but was fired for publishing a paper critical of the tech giant's large scale language models. In this not-to-be-missed talk, Dr. Gebru will unveil her new independent AI research institute, which is part of her mission to free AI research from pervasive tech influence. Join us to learn how you too can join her fight to hold Big Tech accountable for products and practices that cause harm to our most vulnerable communities.
The Fight Against Surveillance State
Speaker/s: Jennifer Lee, Technology & Liberty Manager, ACLU of Washington and Eleni Manis, Research Director, S.T.O.P
8.55am – 9.35am PDT
ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) tirelessly pursues large-scale impact that affects real people's lives, including reproductive, youth, and LGBTQ rights; mass incarceration and racial justice; privacy, surveillance, and technology. S.T.O.P (Stop Surveillance Oversight Project) fights to end discriminatory surveillance. It challenges both individual misconduct and broader systemic failures by crafting policies and educating impacted communities on how they can protect their rights. In this session, our speakers will share how these two organizations are fighting harms from the surveillance state - automated decision systems, predictive policing tools, facial recognition systems, and getting agencies to disclose how they are using these pervasive systems.
Litigating for Tech Fairness & Accountability
Speaker/s: Cori Crider, Co-founder - Foxglove
9.40am– 10.00am PDT
In a very short time, Foxglove has built an impressive track record for holding big tech and governments alike to account in the U.K. They have forced disclosure of secret contracts between tech giants and government, known as the ‘NHS Covid-19 data deals’, stopped the Home Office’s racist visa-streaming algorithm, helped make grading fair for every student in the UK by challenging Ofqual’s algorithm and helped over 360 Facebook workers speak out against their harmful workplace conditions. In this session, we have invited co-founder of Foxglove to discuss the effectiveness of litigation as a strategy to fight big tech.
Big Tech Oversight Boards - How Effective Are They?
Speaker/s: Julie Owono, Executive Director, Internet Sans Frontiers, Facebook Oversight Board Member
10.05ma – 10.25am PDT
Big Tech has made many attempts at self-governance and one approach has been to create Oversight Boards with external representatives. The response to formation of these Boards has been controversial and the jury is still out on whether they have been effective in holding the tech giants accountable. In this session we have invited a member of the official Facebook Oversight Board for an open and honest discussion about the usefulness of tech oversight boards and also address some of their limitations.
Sex Workers - Canaries in the Tech Coalmines
Speaker/s: Savannah Sly, National Coordinator for #OldProProject with Old Pros, sex worker rights advocate
10.30am-10.50am PDT
Sex workers have a lot to teach us about privacy, data, censorship, communication, and surveillance. They are always the first movers on technology platforms due to enterprise and necessity i.e. creating space for themselves. But they are also the first ones to be booted off when a given platform gets popular. In this session, you will hear from a fierce sex worker rights and gender justice advocate fighting harms to their community from constant targeting by biased algorithms and facial recognition.
Closing Discussion - Protecting Tech Whistleblowers
Speaker/s: Ifeoma Ozoma, Founder and Principal of Earthseed
10.55am – 11.25am PDT
Ifeoma Ozoma's consulting firm advises individuals, organizations, and companies on the issues of tech accountability, public policy, health misinformation, and related communications. She is a former employee at Pinterest, Facebook, and Google, who courageously broke her NDA to share her experience with wage discrimination and retaliation in her workplace. She is also the catalyst for a bill that limits nondisclosure and nondisparagement agreements, which was signed into law in California, as part of her mission to protect workers who speak out on unlawful conduct. Ozoma has also published The Tech Worker Handbook, a powerful resource guide for tech workers considering disclosing information in the public interest. In this engaging discussion, she will share how we can protect whistleblowers and support their fight for greater tech accountability.
Announcement of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics list for 2022 & Closing Remarks
Speaker/s: Women in AI Ethics team
11.30am – 12.00pm PDT
If you would like to highlight your whistleblowing events or activities on the WIN website, please drop us a line on info@whistleblowingnetwork.org