Artificial Intelligence will transform the world in profound and almost unknowable ways. What we do know that is that it’s essential for women and people of color to play a prominent role in this relatively new field and represent the needs and interests of the whole population rather than a select few.
Below are just a few of the diverse AI researchers and technologists leading in their fields.
Fei-Fei Li
Li is a renowned technologist who serves with Google Cloud as its Chief Scientist of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning. She is also a professor at Stanford, and an Ivy League graduate. According to Li emphasized her commitment to diversity and inclusion in the technological field, saying: “we all have a responsibility to make sure everyone – including companies, governments, and researchers – develop AI with diversity in mind.”
Daphne Koller
Koller has authored over 200 publications and won a plethora of awards for her academic excellence and technological breakthroughs. Her mission is to educate disadvantaged students from low socio-economic backgrounds to enable strong economic mobility.
Cynthia Breazeal
Breazeal is the founder and chief scientist of Jibo, an incredibly successful personal robotics company. Although her research was initially dismissed and ignored, she has since received numerous accolades and media attention and has changed the face of robotics, transforming them from physical and industrial tools to social and emotional companions.
Latanya Sweeney
Sweeney is a Professor of Government and Technology and Director of the Data Privacy Lab at Harvard University. Her specializations include matters of security, privacy, and bias in machine learning algorithms. This research has exposed large scale discriminatory practices in online advertisements, internet searches, and ad suggestions. Her unique integration and understanding of both technology and the workings of the government have led to the discovery of critical breakthroughs in the perceptions of the social mechanisms of machinery and AI.
Andrea Frome
Frome began her career as an environmental scientist. However, her love for the data and modeling aspects of her work lead her to a career in Computer Vision and Machine Learning. She joined Google and then became the Director of Research at Clarifai, a leading computer vision company. Brilliant and motivated, she contributed to the launch of Google Street View and has become a top AI researcher in the field. Frome was quoted as saying that she has “often found greater satisfaction in solving problems with impact reaching beyond the academic community”.