Gebru, Timnit
1982/1983- · Contribution: 2017-2021
Computer scientist and AI-ethics researcher
Co-authored 'Gender Shades,' a landmark 2018 study proving major facial recognition systems were significantly less accurate on darker-skinned faces; co-founded Black in AI; her controversial 2020 departure from Google sparked one of the most prominent public debates over corporate AI ethics research
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Born
- 1982, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- Active since
- 2013
- Category
- Technology & Engineering
- Best known for
- 'Gender Shades' study and AI-ethics leadership
Impact on the world
Gebru helped prove that AI systems encode the biases of their makers, and became a central figure in the fight to hold powerful technology companies accountable for the harms of their tools.
An alternative history
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Sources
- Source lookupFind
TIME Magazine
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Related visionaries
Buolamwini, Joy Adowaa
1989-
Founded the Algorithmic Justice League after discovering commercial facial recognition software could not detect her own face unless she wore a white mask; co-authored 'Gender Shades,' which forced IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon to overhaul their facial recognition products
Raji, Inioluwa Deborah
1995/1996-
Co-authored the 2019 'Actionable Auditing' study with Joy Buolamwini, already profiled in this collection, directly leading Amazon to face sustained public pressure over racial and gender bias in its facial recognition technology; later co-authored major frameworks for internal AI accountability auditing alongside Timnit Gebru, also already profiled here
Isbell, Charles Lee Jr.
1968-
AI and machine learning researcher who became dean of Georgia Tech's College of Computing, then provost of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; his own misidentified photograph became the center of a major public debate over AI bias between Timnit Gebru, already profiled in this collection, and Meta's chief AI scientist
Abebe, Rediet
1991-
Algorithmic fairness research