#IamthefutureofAI Series: Merve Hickok

Do you have the entrepreneurial spirit? This inspiring session is full of insights on the start up journey from founders building the future of responsible AI and VCs funding an ethical AI future. Get tips on fundraising for your vision and get a close look at the challenges specific to underrepresented founders. Also, learn what it’s like to work for a startup and the opportunities in this space. Speakers: Hessie Jones, Jennifer Jordan, Patricia Thaine

Ready for a career in Responsible AI/ML? Join this session to learn about the diverse jobs available in corporate and academia, get tips from experienced recruiters on how to land your dream job, pivot from your current non-AI role, transition from academia to corporate sector, and how to assess your potential work environment. --- Ebitie Amughan is the Senior Recruiting Operations Program Manager for Inclusive Hiring at Pinterest. She brings her unique talent solutions to business partners and hiring teams through her creative and strategic workflows. With her recruiting expertise, she has managed and launched programs and processes that optimize and simplify the hiring process to ensure the organizations meet their goals and plan. Prior to her promotion to a Senior Program Manager role, she was a Technical Recruiter for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence at Pinterest in charge of recruiting senior engineers in building a discovery engine. Ebitie’s deep knowledge of recruiting has led her to work with distinguished companies like Microsoft and the National Board of Advisors for the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona as a newly inducted board member. Jessica Yrani is a lead technical recruiter focusing on Analytics and ML hiring at Roblox. Before joining Roblox, she was a lead recruiter at Pinterest, partnering with engineering leadership to build Machine Learning teams within the Core and Monetization organization. Throughout Jessica’s decade of experience, she has partnered with technical teams to create inclusive hiring strategies. Tulsi Parida is the Global Director of Government Data Solutions at Visa. Her work is at the intersection of payments data and government and she develops innovative data solutions for governments looking to use spend insights to inform their policy-making and decisions. She brings a decade of experience at the intersection of tech, society, and business, with a commitment to reducing digital inequality and promoting responsible and inclusive technology. Prior to Visa, she led teams at various startups working to bridge digital divides in literacy education both in the US and in India. Tulsi holds a BSc in Education & Social Policy, Economics from Northwestern University and a dual degree MSc /MBA in Tech & Society from the University of Oxford. Recently, Tulsi has won the global 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics and Tech Women 100 awards in the UK.

Join Jodi Masters-Gonzales in this session to listen, consider, and thoughtfully discuss the global economic opportunity for practitioners of Independent Audit of AI Systems (#IAAIS), the wide range of opportunities — from the highly technical to non-technical — the public good organizations blazing the path of gold-standard certification, how to get involved — now, why regulators are adopting a systems-thinking approach to digital policy for AI risk and algorithmic bias mitigation, and the many opportunities for first-movers to contribute to an ecosystem that ends AI harms.

Join us for an interesting conversation with the Senior Designer on IBM’s Design for AI team, Milena Pribic as she shares details about her career journey so far, her views on ethical and AI and how it applies to her work, the tools and frameworks she uses to address bias and ensure fairness, the benefits of coming from a non-traditional background in this space, and so much more.

There is a disturbing trend in the AI space as critical societal issues are being overshadowed by hype projects favored by the techno-elites. Meet the philanthropic leaders supporting much-needed racial justice and diversity work by organizations like Algorithmic Justice League, DAIR, Women in AI Ethics among many others. We’ll hear their thoughts on the power imbalance in the tech industry, role of philanthropy in building the tech we want, and their ongoing efforts to ensure a more ethical and equitable AI/tech future for all.

In this week's episode, WAIE Board Member, University of Helsinki Professor, and creator of Elements of AI, Teemu Roos, and AI Researcher, Ioanna Bouri share the vision for the collaboration between the Women in AI Ethics and the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence (FCAI) to make AI more diverse,  inclusive, and accessible to all. 

Artist, educator, and AI researcher, Lia Coleman takes us through the highlights of their eye-opening career journey including the experiences which inspired them to get involved in the space, the challenges they’ve encountered as they navigate the world of technology as a creative along with the importance of diversity in the space and having allies advocating for you, helping you to push forward.

AIethicist.org Founder, Merve Hickok joins us in this series to share her inspiring career journey and how she’s continuing to do meaningful work in this space despite coming from a non-technical background. She also opens up about overcoming different hurdles as well as her thoughts on diversity along with some encouraging words for individuals who are coming from non-technical backgrounds and are thinking of joining this space.

AI Ethics and Policy Researcher, Favour Borokini takes us through her career journey as she shares what inspired her to join the AI space and how she landed her current role at Pollicy. She also shares some of the most common barriers and challenges she tackles on a daily basis as someone who comes from a non-technical background. Listen in as she shares her thoughts on diversity and the most practical tips to get started in this space especially if you're someone who comes from a non-technical background.

In this episode, we have Ethically Aligned AI CEO and Founder, Katrina Ingram as she shares what inspired her to join this space, how she landed in her current role, the different kinds of barriers she encountered in the space and how she's overcome them along with the hurdles she deals with on a daily basis. She also has some practical advice for anyone who comes from a non-technical background but wants to make an impact in this space.