#OpenDialogue 12 Nov. Automating Ambiguity: Navigating the Challenges of AI Governance
Happening on Tuesday, November 12th at 5pm CET & SAST / 4pm UK / 11am CET / 8am PST. Please RSVP by registering on the Zoom link here
We invite you to join us for a dialogue at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, philanthropy, policy, and profit.
In an era where digital technology is profoundly reshaping our society, we are a critical juncture. How to “bend the arc of digital revolution toward shared power, prosperity, and possibility” is a question that philanthropy is increasingly seeking to grapple with.
This conversation will examine the double-edged nature of AI and its impacts, exploring issues such as
- The profound impact of AI on society and democracy, including how algorithms are increasingly shaping public discourse.
- The central misleading and problematic narratives surrounding AI and AI capabilities
- The need for new policy and regulatory frameworks to govern AI in the private sector, as traditional approaches to media and technology regulation prove insufficient.
- AI’s impact on work and employment, including disruptions to jobs, the nature and quality of work and worker wellbeing
- The importance of human cooperation in addressing AI challenges, and strategies for responsible AI implementation.
- The need for big tech co-operations, responsibility and accountability in addressing AI challenges
By bringing together diverse perspectives from philanthropy, ethics, labour, and industry, this discussion aims to chart a course towards harnessing AI’s potential while mitigating its risks.
Join us for this timely and critical conversation on how we can shape the future of AI to serve the many, not the few by charting a course towards responsible AI governance that protects and benefits society as a whole.
Please RSVP by registering on the Zoom link here
Conversation guides include:
Abeba Birhane is a cognitive scientist, currently a Senior Advisor in AI Accountability at Mozilla Foundation and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. She researches human behaviour, social systems, and responsible and ethical AI – work for which she was recently featured in Wired UK and TIME on the TIME100 Most Influential People in AI list.
Birhane’s work explores the challenges and pitfalls of automating human behaviour through critical examination of existing models and audits of large-scale datasets used for training models. She demonstrated patterns of problematic data collection, labelling, and use of large-scale image datasets like MIT’s 80 Million Tiny Images, which was taken down as a direct result of one of her audit papers. Her paper showed that these datasets – which were used to develop numerous algorithmic tools – encode racist, misogynist, and otherwise marginalising labels that cause downstream harms (as models trained on such dataset further exacerbate these problems), especially towards people at the margins of society.
Birhane was awarded the 2019 NeurIPS Black in AI Best Paper Award, a 2020 VentureBeat AI Innovations in Computer Vision Award, a 2022 Fairness Accountability and Transparency (FAccT) Distinguished Paper Award, and a 2022 Lego Director’s Prize for her PhD thesis contribution, among many other honours.
Jodi Starkman is Executive Director of Innovation Resource Center for Human Resources (IRC4HR), a 98-year-old foundation with a mission “to advance the knowledge and practice of human relations in the workplace.” The challenges, issues, and opportunities have evolved over the years, but the goal has always been to promote and enable the mutual aspirations of organizations and the people who lead and work for them. Currently, IRC4HR is focused on funding action research and curating insights about the implications of technology and digital disruption on the future of work, organizations, people, and leadership.
Prior to her role at IRC4HR, Jodi worked in organization strategy and change at several management consulting firms, where she led global business and HR transformation programs across multiple industries. She has also worked independently as an organization development/effectiveness consultant and certified coach assisting businesses, non-profits, and individuals to improve organizational health and team/individual performance. Jodi earned her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience/biological basis of behavior from the University of Pennsylvania and her master’s in health care management from the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy. She currently serves on the board of Aleria Research Corporation, a non-profit with a mission to demonstrate the value of diversity and inclusion, and to foster greater inclusion and equality across society
Abigail (Abby) Gilbert is a distinguished cultural political economist and public policy researcher. For the past five years, Abby has focused on AI governance, particularly its impacts on work and working lives. She is currently the Co-Director of the Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW), where she leads efforts to understand and address the impacts of data-driven technologies in the private sector.
At IFOW, Abby has established the first civil society-led, employment-focused AI regulatory sandbox. This action research environment is designed to facilitate responsible AI adoption with businesses while simultaneously unpacking how different hard and soft law regulatory practices would better support universal access to good work.
Abby’s career at IFOW includes roles such as Director of Praxis, Head of Research, and Principal Researcher. Before joining IFOW, she worked in various research and policy positions, exploring the relationship between the economy and democracy. She holds a PhD in Public Policy Analysis from the University of Manchester, where she also completed her Master’s in Social Science Research Methods. Her academic and professional background make her a leading figure in discussions about the future of work and AI integration.
Gerry Salole is an independent consultant specialising in international development and philanthropy, currently operating through his consultancy, “drawing conclusions”. He previously served as Chief Executive of the European Foundation Centre and has experience of having worked with organizations such as the Ford Foundation, Save the Children and Oxfam. In addition to his consultancy work, Salole holds several board memberships, he’s the chair of the European Cultural Foundation, and sits on the Board of the Unicredit Foundation, The Evens Foundation, The Africa Capacity Building Foundation and the Impact Trust. He also teaches as an adjunct lecturer at the Centre for African Philanthropy and Social Investment at the Business School of the University of the Witswatersrand.
