Call for Participation: Please Don't Include Us
We are now accepting *participant applications* for our Please Don't Include Us workshop!
Details
Please Don't Include Us
September 25, 2019 (all day)
Harvard Kennedy School
Workshop
Inclusion in AI development? At what cost, and to whom? During this day-long workshop, we aim to look at and evaluate tensions around the development of AI technology, its social and political implications, and the unintended effects that diversity and inclusion in AI have on different groups.
As has been evident, technology and inclusion efforts have not always gone together seamlessly. For instance, if we look at the popular rise of facial recognition tools over the past few years, people of color have been excluded from the design and implementation process. The tools are often discriminatory, fail to recognize people of color, and at times, misgender them. However, in parallel, facial recognition technology is increasingly integrated into police and state surveillance tools, and perfecting that technology could significantly further impact communities that are already over-policed and over-surveilled.
This has led us to call out, “Please Don’t Include Us.” During the convening, we hope to bring these tensions to the forefront of conversations around AI development. We invite participation from people interested in exploring how to:
1. Support the development of the network of community-based researchers and tech workers who are assessing the social impacts of AI
2. Increase knowledge across this network of the ethical and legal implications of big data and inclusion
3. Strengthen research about diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across academia and industry
4. Map out inclusion efforts within AI practices that negatively impact equity-seeking groups
Participation
Applications for participation are accepted on a rolling basis until September 4, 2019. As we finalize the agenda, we will share it publicly. Participants will be expected to engage in conversations, collaborate together, and potentially present on their work. We promise we all ask you before hand!
This workshop is for community organizers, academics, technologists and anyone who is interested in exploring this topic in meaningful ways.
We will fulfill funding requests on a first come, first considered basis. Please apply sooner than later.
Please send questions to: manipulation@hks.harvard.edu
This is a collaboration between Digital Justice Lab, Harvard Kennedy’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy (Technology and Social Change Research Project), and Sarah Aoun.