100 BRILLIANT WOMEN IN AI ETHICS ANNUAL SUMMIT – 2021

This year on Thursday, December 2nd we have invited change-makers from the Women in AI Ethics community to inspire and guide us on the concrete actions we can all take for a more responsible AI/tech future. Join us as we explore different approaches to greater tech accountability along with their effectiveness as well as limitations.

We will also honor the 100 new voices in this space and highlight more brilliant women and non-binary folks in our Hall of Fame.

Check out the past lists here and nominate yourself or a colleague here!

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Many thanks to the Ford Foundation and Omidyar Network for supporting our annual event!

WHAT TO EXPECT

Agenda

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2021

Note: Timings are in U.S. Pacific Time. Use this free tool to find your local time.

8:00a to 8:15a PDT- Opening Remarks

Speaker/s : Mia Shah-Dand, founder Women in AI Ethics & Lighthouse3

8:20a to 8:50a PDT - Opening Keynote - Holding Big Tech Accountable

Speaker/s: Dr.Timnit Gebru, Independent Scholar

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.

8:55a to 9:35a PDT - The Fight Against Surveillance State

Speaker/s: Jennifer Lee, Technology & Liberty Manager, ACLU of Washington and Eleni Manis, Research Director, S.T.O.P

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.

9:40a to 10:00a PDT - Litigating for Tech Fairness & Accountability

Speaker/s: Cori Crider, Co-founder – Foxglove

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.

10:05a to 10:25a PDT - Big Tech Oversight Boards - How Effective Are They?

Speaker/s: Julie Owono, Executive Director, Internet Sans Frontiers, Facebook Oversight Board Member

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.

10:30a to 10:50a PDT - Sex Workers - Canaries in the Tech Coalmines

Speaker/s: Savannah Sly,  National Coordinator for #OldProProject with Old Pros, sex worker rights advocate

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.

10:55a to 11:25a PDT - Closing Discussion - Protecting Tech Whistleblowers

Speaker/s: Ifeoma Ozoma, Founder and Principal of Earthseed

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.

11:30a to 12:00p PDT - Announcement of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics list for 2022 & Closing Remarks

Speaker/s: Women in AI Ethics team

WHO IS HOSTING THIS EVENT?

This event is hosted by Women in AI Ethics™ (WAIE), a fiscally sponsored project of Social Good Fund (Tax Id: 46-1323531), a California nonprofit corporation and registered 501(c)(3) organization, with a mission to increase recognition, representation, and empowerment of brilliant women in this space who are working hard to save humanity from the dark side of AI.

**You can support our activities by donating here! **

All our activities are funded by donations and ticket sales. Donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law and used to fund mission-aligned activities, which includes but is not limited to providing free AI Ethics career resources, hosting community events, and funding other initiatives to support women in this space.

CODE OF CONDUCT

We reserve the right to refuse membership or entrance to anyone who is disruptive, dangerous, and/or poses a threat or harasses our members/speakers in any manner. Harassment includes but is not limited to heckling the members or speakers, purposeful misgendering, mansplaining, using any kind of slur, bullying, racist comments, or any other attempt to intimidate other attendees or disrupt the event. We reserve the right to take action including but not limited to removing/blocking members who are in violation of our rules. There is no place in our group for hate or harassment.