Today, a conversation about equity and AI. Tom's guest is Dr. Timnit Gebru, a computer scientist and tech expert who is working to reduce the negative effects of artificial intelligence.

In 2021, Dr. Gebru founded the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), a non-profit she currently serves as executive director. Before that, she was employed at Google, where she co-led the Ethical Artificial Intelligence research team. She was fired in 2020 — although the company insists she resigned — after a dispute with Google about its suppression of some of her research, and her criticism of the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)

policies. She had previously done ground-breaking work at Apple and Microsoft.Dr. Gebru is also the co-founder of Black in AI, a nonprofit whose stated mission is "to increase the presence, inclusion, visibility and health of Black people in the field of AI."Dr. Timnit Gebru joined us on Zoom from San Francisco.

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