KINGSTON, R.I., March 28, 2018—Diversity and inclusion in the artificial intelligence lab are among the topics that will be discussed during a public meeting Wednesday, April 4 at the University of Rhode Island.
“People of Color in AI” will start at noon in the Galanti Lounge at the Robert L. Carothers Library and Learning Commons, 15 Lippitt Road, on the Kingston campus.
At the third annual meeting of the Rhode Island Artificial Intelligence meet-up group, speakers will talk about ethical considerations involving AI and machine learning projects.
Speakers will be:
* Timnit Gebru, a researcher at Microsoft Research in the Fairness, Transparency, Accountability and Ethics in AI group. Gebru led a study at Stanford University that analyzed images and location data from Google Street view to predict voting patterns. As a co-founder of the group Black in AI, she works to increase diversity in the field and reduce racial bias in data.
* Ahmed Bouzid founder and chief executive officer of Witlingo, a startup that builds products and solutions for Voice First devices and platforms, such as Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant and Microsoft’s Cortana. Before Witlingo, Bouzid was head of Alexa’s smart home product at Amazon and vice president of product and innovation at Angel.com.
Karim Boughida, dean of University Libraries, will moderate the talk.
Donald H. DeHayes, provost and vice president for academic affairs, and Naomi Thompson, associate vice president and chief diversity officer, will give opening remarks.
URI’s new Artificial Intelligence Lab, or AI Lab, is scheduled to open in fall 2018 at the Robert L. Carothers Library and Learning Commons. The lab is the first of its kind in a college library nationwide, says the lab’s team.
The lab will enable students to explore projects on robotics, natural language processing, smart cities, smart homes, the Internet of Things and big data, with tutorials at beginner through advanced levels. It will also serve as a hub for ideas—a place for faculty, students and the community to explore the social, ethical, economic and even artistic implications of these emerging technologies.
For more details about the April 4 meeting, contact Boughida, dean of University Libraries, at boughida@uri.edu.