In episode #8 of the Connectomics podcast, Mark sits down with cognitive scientist and ethical AI researcher, Dr. Abeba Birhane.

 

In this episode, they talk about Abeba's work auditing large image datasets, how they have discovered racial biases in these data sets,  and what the implications of that are.

 

They also talk about Abeba's work in embodied cognitive science, and how the understanding of the person that emerges from that work challenges some of the assumptions underlying the value of the 'predictive' algorithms that are being used more and more in, for instance, crime prevention.

 

Abeba provides a great overview of the state of AI research at the moment, some of the challenges it faces, and some of the things we can do to ensure we are developing technologies that serve everyone and not just certain privileged groups.

 

This episode was edited and produced by Shane Byrne and in association with the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University.

 

Cover art is provided by Cian Brennan.