Abeba Birhane
Senior Fellow, Trustworthy AI
2022-2023
Ireland
Dr. Abeba Birhane is a cognitive scientist researching human behavior, social systems, and responsible and ethical artificial intelligence (AI). Her interdisciplinary research explores broad themes in cognitive science, AI, complexity science, and theories of decoloniality. More specifically, Dr. Birhane examines the challenges and pitfalls of computational models (and datasets) from a conceptual, empirical, and critical perspective.
Fellowship Project
Abeba conducted a comparative audit of datasets used by large generative models, specifically LAION-400M and LAION-2B-en. She discovered the presence of hateful content within these datasets, which contributed to the associated models producing societal biases and negative stereotypes. Abeba also assessed aliency cropping algorithms, the AI tool that automatically crops photos in social media feeds. This work was inspired by a Twitter user who experimented with the algorithm, witnessing it crop a Black man out of a photo and prioritize a white man. To investigate further, Abeba and her collaborators examined the cropping tools used by Twitter, Apple, and Google. She and her collaborators discovered the cropping tools consistently favored white individuals over Black individuals. In addition, they observed a tendency to objectify women by emphasizing their bodies rather than their faces, reflecting the "male gaze."
Tarcizio Silva
Senior Fellow, Tech Policy
2023-2025
Brazil
Tarcizio Silva is a Brazilian researcher and technologist based in São Paulo. Previously, he was a Mozilla Tech and Society fellow embedded at Ação Educativa, developing educational awareness projects about technology, the internet, and racism. He is a PhD researcher (UFABC) and UFBA alumni, author of the book "Algorithmic Racism: artificial intelligence and discrimination in digital media," and creator of the curatorial project Desvelar on decolonial thinking about technology and media.
Fellowship Project
Tarcizio contributes to AI-related policy and regulatory developments and debates in Brazil. He pays particular attention to the replication of existing discriminatory practices in the country, such as structural racism against Black populations by AI systems. More specifically, his project will explore the impact of AI systems on human rights online and the promotion of various social justice issues. It will engage with diverse stakeholders in Brazil who work with impacted communities and influence the adoption of accountable and transparent AI policies.
Julia Keserű
Senior Fellow, Tech Policy
2023-2025
Hungary
Julia Keserű is an activist and writer working at the intersection of technology and justice. Over the past 15 years she has advised numerous organizations on their data and technology strategies, written extensively about the challenges and opportunities of data-driven systems, and led diverse global teams to create a healthier and safer online world. Julia is the Executive Director of The Engine Room, a globally distributed team that helps social justice activists use data in strategic, responsible, and safe ways.
Fellowship Project
Julia’s fellowship will explore the role that bodily integrity could play in tech industry regulation. This will be done through mixed-method research into how the inviolability of the physical body has become a key concept in other, more heavily regulated fields such as health care, and draw potential parallels for the tech policy agenda. This will most notably focus on pending AI regulation and data protection regimes in the EU and the U.S. Her project will culminate in recommendations to increase the protection of integrity and dignity.
