Timnit Gebru and the fight to make artificial intelligence work for Africa
The way Timnit Gebru sees it, the foundations of the future are being built now. In Silicon Valley, home to the world’s biggest tech companies, the artificial intelligence(AI) revolution is already well under way. Software is being written and algorithms are being trained that will determine the shape of our lives for decades or even centuries to come. ...
... As she explains it, Dair’s mission is to convince Silicon Valley to take its ethical responsibilities more seriously — but also to persuade leaders in the Global South to make better decisions and to implement proper regulatory frameworks. For instance, Gmail passively scans all emails in Africa for the purposes of targeted advertising, but the European Union has outlawed this to protect their citizens.
“Our governments need to ask better questions,” says Sefala. “If it is about AI for Johannesburg, they should be talking to the researchers here.” ...
See the full story here: https://mg.co.za/africa/2022-06-09-timnit-gebru-and-the-fight-to-make-artificial-intelligence-work-for-africa/
