It seems like this might be of interest to this list? Christian ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Christian Sandvig <csandvig@umich.edu> Date: Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 10:16 PM Subject: MONDAY: Timnit Gebru: Computer Vision -- Who Is Helped And Who Is Harmed? (4pm ET on Zoom) To: Dear Ethics and AI Enthusiasts, Welcome to the new year! I'm writing with the exciting news that ESC will launch the semester with a talk by Dr. Timnit Gebru. Even if you have already seen announcements of this event, I want to reiterate its significance. In the domain of computing and ethics, Dr. Gebru is one of the most sought after speakers available. Dr. Gebru is a leading and widely-respected researcher in the domain of AI ethics. In addition, Dr. Gebru was recently dismissed from Google after what the MIT Technology Review described as "a protracted disagreement over a research paper...[which] detailed the risks of large AI language models." This has received such widespread attention, last month it led members of Congress to call for a federal investigation. Monday's talk promises to tackle the proposed use of computer vision for such shocking applications as the alleged ability to use your image to identify your sexual orientation, your "propensity to violence," and others. I hope you will join us. All are welcome -- please feel free to forward this e-mail as appropriate. Christian -- Timnit Gebru: Computer Vision – Who is helped and who is harmed? January 25, 2021 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Times are shown in Eastern Time JOIN VIA ZOOM https://umich.zoom.us/j/92549579663 TIMNIT GEBRU Computer Scientist, former Co-Lead Ethical AI Research Team, Google Brain, Founder of Black in AI ABSTRACT Computer vision has ceased to be a purely academic endeavor. From law enforcement, to border control, to employment, healthcare diagnostics, and assigning trust scores, computer vision systems are being rapidly integrated into all aspects of society. In research, there are works that purport to determine a person’s sexuality from their social network profile images, others that claim to classify “violent individuals” from drone footage. These works were published in high impact journals, and some were presented at workshops in top tier computer vision conferences such as CVPR. A critical public discourse surrounding the use of computer-vision based technologies has also been mounting. For example, the use of facial recognition technologies by policing agencies has been heavily critiqued and, in response, companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM have pulled or paused their facial recognition software services. Gender Shades showed that commercial gender classification systems have high disparities in error rates by skin-type and gender, and other works discuss the harms caused by the mere existence of automatic gender recognition systems. Recent papers have also exposed shockingly racist and sexist labels in popular computer vision datasets–resulting in the removal of some. In this talk, I will highlight some of these issues and proposed solutions to mitigate bias, as well as how some of the proposed fixes could exacerbate the problem rather than mitigate it. SPEAKER BIO Timnit Gebru was a senior research scientist at Google co-leading the Ethical Artificial Intelligence research team. Her work focuses on mitigating the potential negative impacts of machine learning based systems. Timnit is also the co-founder of Black in AI, a non profit supporting Black researchers and practitioners in artificial intelligence. Prior to this, she did a postdoc at Microsoft Research, New York City in the FATE (Fairness Transparency Accountability and Ethics in AI) group, where she studied algorithmic bias and the ethical implications underlying any data mining project. She received her Ph.D. from the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, studying computer vision under Fei-Fei Li. Prior to joining Fei-Fei’s lab, she worked at Apple designing circuits and signal processing algorithms for various Apple products including the first iPad. This event is organized by the Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS) and co-sponsored by ESC, the U-M AI Lab, and the IT Dissonance Event Series. Link to this event on the Web: https://esc.umich.edu/event/timnit-gebru-computer-vision-who-is-helped-and-w... More information about ESC: The Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing: http://esc.umich.edu/ LOOKING AHEAD TO OUR NEXT ESC EVENT: Charlton McIlwain: Smash the Mainframe -- The Collision Between Civil Rights and Computing February 2, 2021 @ 7:00 pm https://esc.umich.edu/event/charlton-mcilwain-smash-the-mainframe/ -------- ESC is generously supported by the School of Information; the Center for Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research; and the Department of Communication & Media in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan.