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Exposing the Bias Embedded in Tech – The New York Times


“Let’s not just talk about statistical parity within a given A.I. system, but just and equitable uses of A.I. systems,” she said.

The bad news, Ms. Whittaker said, is that as tech companies become more powerful, they also become less diverse.

“The people at the top look more and more the same,” she said. And fewer, not more, women are getting bachelor’s degrees in computer science. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 28 percent of bachelor’s degrees in computer and information science went to women in the year 2000; in 2016 it was 18 percent.

Ms. Whittaker helped organize an international walkout at Google last year to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment, an event that she said was the culmination of years of frustration.

“A lot of people who had worked within Google in good faith for a long time said we need new forms of pushback,” she said. “We can’t keep showing up to your panels and keep serving on your diversity committees. We need to achieve structural change.

“The problems are not simply that we’re not getting promotions, or opportunity inequity or pay inequity or that women and people of color are more often slotted into contract roles instead of hired full time, but it is also affecting the world beyond. The products that are created in these environments reflect these cultures, and that’s having an impact on billions of people.”

Ms. Whittaker said she and her co-organizer of the walkout, Claire Stapleton, faced retaliation for their political activism; Ms. Stapleton left Google this month.

“It’s so discouraging to think this is still going on,” said Ms. Johnson, who is an engineer and has been in the technology field for over 30 years. “But what I always think the way to turn anything around is to shine a light on it. You keep the light on there until the data surfaces, and then you have to find a way to fix it. It’s not a ‘check the box and move on, everyone take unconscious bias training and we’re all good now.’ You have to keep at it, keep at it, keep at it.”



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