Tess Posner: Ethics and Diversity in AI
We hope to see you Friday when our speaker will be Tess Posner, CEO of AI4All. Artificial Intelligence is the new electricity, says Andrew Ng. The global economic impact of AI applications is expected to reach $2.95 trillion by 2025, and we’re already seeing AI being incorporated into areas and tools like medical diagnosis, personal assistants like Siri, self-driving cars and Google Translate. However, as machines are getting closer to mirroring human-like abilities, they are also absorbing the deeply ingrained unconscious biases in our society. How do we address bias and other ethical risks in the development and deployment of AI technologies? Join Tess as she talks about how AI4ALL, her organization working to increase diversity and inclusion in AI, takes on challenges and comes up with concrete solutions.
AI4ALL is a nonprofit working to increase diversity and inclusion in artificial intelligence. They create pipelines for underrepresented talent through education and mentorship programs around the U.S. and Canada that give high school students early exposure to AI for social good. Their vision is for AI to be developed by a broad group of thinkers and doers advancing AI for humanity’s benefit.
Our own Rick Sommer is a co-founder and board member of AI4ALL, which started with a program in his organization (Pre-Collegiate Studies) offered at Stanford (originally called Stanford AI Lab Outreach Summer (SAILORS), but now Stanford AI4ALL).
Their flagship program is educating the next generation of diverse AI leaders in partnership with Stanford, UC Berkeley, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, Simon Fraser and other leading companies and educational institutions in AI today.
Tess has spent her career on initiatives that increase equity and economic opportunity in the education system and economy. She is passionate about working towards a future where all people have the chance to access education, find dignified work and reach their full potential. Previously, Tess supported the TechHire initiative—a national initiative to get more Americans rapidly trained for well-paying tech jobs—through collaboration with key stakeholders including state and local government leaders, workforce development programs, and education providers. Prior to joining Opportunity@Work, Tess was Managing Director of Samaschool, a social enterprise part of the SamaGroup that equips low-income people to find work in the digital economy. Prior to Samaschool, Tess led the employment and education programs at First Place for Youth, a nationally-recognized model that helps foster youth find housing, get their first job, and stay in school. Before First Place, she managed programs that taught competitive debate as a literacy and empowerment tool in underserved public schools in New York City. Tess holds a master's degree from Columbia University School in Social Enterprise Administration and a bachelor’s in liberal arts from St. John’s College.