Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society: Audio Fishbowl

From everyday apps to complex algorithms, technology has the potential to hide, speed, and even deepen discrimination, while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to racist practices of a previous era. In this talk, Ruha Benjamin presents the concept of the “New Jim Code" to explore a range of discriminatory designs that encode inequity: by explicitly amplifying racial hierarchies, by ignoring but thereby replicating social divisions, or by aiming to fix racial bias but ultimately doing quite the opposite. Ruha will also consider how race itself is a kind of tool designed to stratify and sanctify social injustice and discuss how technology is and can be used toward liberatory ends. This presentation delves into the world of biased bots, altruistic algorithms, and their many entanglements, and provides conceptual tools to decode tech promises with sociologically informed skepticism. In doing so, it challenges the audience to question not only the technologies we are sold, but also the ones we manufacture ourselves. For more information (and a transcript), visit https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/new-jim-code

This talk introduces the speakers’ new book, The Costs of Connection: How Data Colonizes Human Life and Appropriates it for Capitalism (Stanford University Press, August 2019). For more information (and a transcript) visit https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/colonized-data-costs-connection-nick-couldry-and-ulises-mejias

The twenty-odd year mainstream digital revolution has transformed in the public eye from one of promise to threat. This pessimism is reflected in assessments of the latest pervasive technology: AI generally, and machine learning specifically. How different is this technology from what preceded it, and do we need new ways to govern it? If so, how would they come about? For more information about this event, visit https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/can-tech-be-governed

There is growing awareness and concern about the role of automation in hiring, and the potential for these tools to reinforce historic inequalities in the labor market. In this work, Wilson performs an algorithm audit of the resume search engines offered by several of the largest online hiring platforms, to understand the relationship between a candidate's gender and their rank in search results. He and his team audit these platform with respect to individual and group fairness, as well as indirect and direct discrimination.

For more info about this event, visit https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2019-05-21/auditing-bias-resume-search-engines

The Internet and AI are not only changing the future, they're changing our ideas about how the future arises from the present. In his new book, Everyday Chaos, David Weinberger points to accepted ways we work on the Internet that in undo our old assumptions about how the future works.

For more info about this event visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2019-05-14/everyday-chaos

Berkman Klein community members Elettra Bietti, John Collins, Andrew Gruen, Daniel Jones, Mariel Garcia Montes, Jasmine McNealy, Sabelo Mhlambi, Sarah Newman, Kathy Pham, and Salome Viljoen share their research, passions, and musings in five minute Ignite Talks.

Topics include the data economy in the European Union, maternal health around the world, youth and privacy online in Latin American, Ubuntu as an ethical framework for AI, collecting secrets, and more.

For more info about this event visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2019-05-07/ignite-talks-bkc

How can advocates, activists, and academics work with technology companies to advance human rights? In this talk, David Sullivan, director at the Global Network Initiative, and BKC Fellow Chinmayi Arun draw upon a contentious exchange with Steve Jobs about the Democratic Republic of Congo to offer insights into how companies and civil society can work together on tough issues at the intersection of technology and human rights online.

For more info about this event visit:https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2019-04-23/how-work-tech-companies-human-rights

AI Now Director of Policy Research Rashida Richardson discusses recent research on the data provenance of police data commonly used in predictive policing system. The research reviews Department of Justice consent decrees and other federal court monitored settlements related to police practices to examine the link between unlawful and biased police practices and the data used to train and/or implement these systems.

For more info about this event visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2019-04-16/dirty-data-bad-predictions

We're never going to get a global set of norms for online speech, but do the platforms pick our global values and constitutionalize them? Is there something to tie our global values to the mast when hard issues arise? What would those values even be?

This event features a presentation and discussion with Kate Klonick and Thomas Kadri along with panelists, Chinmayi Arun, Kendra Albert, and Jonathan Zittrain with moderation by Elettra Bietti.

For more info about this event visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2019-04-09/constitutionalizing-speech-platforms

BKC Executive Director Urs Gasser speaks with Jason Farman, author of the book "Delayed Response: The Art of Waiting from the Ancient to the Instant World," about how our communication media shape not only how we understand human intimacy and connection, but also how we learn and build knowledge about our world and the universe.

For more info about this event visit: https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2019-04-08/bkc-meet-author-series-urs-gasser-conversation-jason-farman