AI and Big Data: The Promise and Perils to Diversity and Fairness

Summary:
It is no longer possible to have a career as a private citizen in the United States, and indeed much of the world, without the direct or indirect influence of complex algorithms churning over big data. As of today in the United States and most other countries, you have almost no rights to view your data, let alone ensure that your data are correct, nor do you have any right to inspect the algorithms which ultimately have large effects on your day to day personal and professional life. These algorithms and systems are demonstrably biased based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation for the few for which we can test. We will discuss the state of research on a number of subjects concerning algorithmic fairness and some of the existing and potential consequences and remedies.

Speaker Bio:
Gabriele Fariello (former interim/transitional CIO here at URI) is an internationally recognized leader in building, improving, and turning-around computational science, data science, and information technology organizations. He created and teaches the introductory survey course in machine learning and artificial intelligence at Harvard University. More here:
https://people.fas.harvard.edu/~fariello/biosketch/

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