In this Dutch-language piece for De Groene Amsterdammer, Marieke Rotman offers an accessible introduction of the main voices, both internationally and in the Netherlands, tirelessly fighting against racism and discrimination in AI-systems. Not coincidentally, most of the people doing this labour are women of colour. The piece guides you through their impressive work and leading perspectives on the dynamics of racism and technology.
It offers a good starting point to learn more about researchers and activists such as Ruha Benjamin, author of Race After Technology, Timnit Gebru, founder of DAIR institute, and Joy Buolamwini, author of the groundbreaking Gender Shades research on racist facial detection.
The piece also offers their reflections on doing this type of work as women of colour. Their and similar perspectives were ignored for the longest time. Now, “AI” is the at the center of public consciousness, and the hypecycle has given way to the mainstreaming of concerns of discrimination and other “dangers of AI”. Human rights lawyer and founder of both the Digital Freedom Fund and Systemic Justice, Nani Jansen Reventlow comments [translation by us]:
I hate it as well when people talk about “giving a voice to the voiceless”. We all have a voice, but people listen very selectively.
See: Vooral vrouwen van kleur klagen de vooroordelen van AI aan at De Groene Amsterdammer.
Header image from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.