#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

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) formerly known as IRC.  Prior to her role at IRC4HR, Jodi was the EVP and COO for Global Consulting at ORC Worldwide (now Mercer). She has worked in human resources strategy and organization change at PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM, leading large-scale business and HR transformation programs across multiple industries. Jodi 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.

Ms. Starkman earned her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience/biological basis of behaviour from the University of Pennsylvania and her master’s in health care management from the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy. Jodi is a board member of amazing. Community, a non-profit that is focused on the intersection of aging and gender in the workplace, and 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.

Miike Kubzansky has been CEO of Omidyar Network since March 2018 after successfully leading the firm’s Intellectual Capital practice, a function he established when he joined the firm in 2013. Under his leadership, he has transformed the social change venture to focus “upstream” on three of the critical 21st century disruptions that have the greatest impact on people’s lives: the economy, digital technology, and demographic change, with the goal of channeling these disruptions into well-being for the many, not just the few. These three areas have been a through line in his career, as has his work across public, private, and nonprofit sectors in emerging and developed markets.

His prior work on digital technology spans a range of settings from telecom start-up to a partner at Monitor Group (now Monitor Deloitte) to Omidyar Network’s investment committee.  Across them all, Mike’s goal has been to harness, explore, and understand the continuum of technology’s impact, from the promise of increased access to services via mobile phones, digital identity, and other innovations to the threats that trample on privacy, competition, and democracy. His prior work on economic issues is similarly broad, whether at World Bank/IFC covering East Asia, consulting on financial and other economic inclusion topics, microcredit and transport in Africa, or community economic development in US cities from Chicago to Flint to Philadelphia. Mike also taught a class at Johns Hopkins SAIS on impact investing and serves as a member of the Board for the US Impact Investing Alliance.

Mike began his career in US politics, as a field organizer on Michael Dukakis’ 1988 presidential campaign and later in the Massachusetts State Senate. He earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from Brown University. He is on the board of Norrsken Foundation, a Swedish organization that helps entrepreneurs solve the world’s greatest challenges. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and golden retriever, and eagerly receives occasional visits from his two adult children.

Gerry Salole is an international development expert and philanthropist. He served as Chief Executive at the European Foundation Centre. He has worked for has worked for the Ford Foundation, The Bernard van Leer Foundation, Save the Children Federation, Redd Barna (Norwegian Save the Children), and OXFAM UK.  Gerry is a renowned thought leader, writer, and lecturer, providing consultation and teaching services at the African Centre for Philanthropy and Social Investment. Chair of the European Cultural Foundation and Board Member of Evens Foundation, Europe-Africa Foundation, African Capacity Building Foundation, Impact Trust, Gerry uses his vast experience in international development, to focus on helping other organisations with projects, strategy, and trends. As a trained Social Anthropologist, Gerry sidestepped an academic career when he accepted a job working with Oxfam Ethiopia where he was subsequently seconded to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), on a project repatriation of Somali refugees in Ethiopia. The experience he gained showed him the gaps that (still) exist between organisations wanting to help, but not always addressing the real needs of people.