As part of our series “Democratizing AI for the Global Majority,” Teanna Barrett (@bound4nostar.bsky.social) examines the politics and power asymmetries shaping AI development in Africa today, and how developing local AI ecosystems might offer a path for progress. datasociety.net/points/towar...

FAccT Day 4 word of the day was impasse. As a field, AI ethics is at a critical moment in which our "big tent" and pluralistic research directions can either complement or cancel each other out. Molly Crockett gave an amazing final keynote calling out genAI-human performance research.

FAccT Day 3 phrase of the day is collective action. From understanding how LLMs enable democratic values to overviewing the scholarly development of FAccT, the sessions I attended highlighted the power, functions, and obstacles that face collective actions.

FAccT Day 2 and the phrase of the day is "government tech". Sessions like the Greek morning panel, keynote on the rule of law for AI, LatAm worker co-ops, and the CRAFT session on the current US AI military complex discussed a broad range of local government enabled approaches to tech.

Check out this paper being presented at #FAccT2025 in the "Normative Challenges to AI" session on Wed at 11! Teanna is a rising star in the field of data ethics - she's just wrapping up her first year of PhD but it's already her 2nd paper at FAccT!

Teanna Barrett@bound4nostar.bsky.social · last yr.

NEW! ✨️African Data Ethics: A Discursive Framework for Black Decolonial Data Science✨️ is a theorectical knowledge contribution that presents one of the first collations of African data ethics perspectives for the pluralistic AI ethics community.

FAccT Day 1 and the word of the day is "metaphor". AI as a tool, God, destroyer, friend, sycophant, or all of the above. From the very good keynote question to the Public Perceptions of AI, there's a lot of interest in making sense of how different non-technical stakeholders characterize AI.

NEW! ✨️African Data Ethics: A Discursive Framework for Black Decolonial Data Science✨️ is a theorectical knowledge contribution that presents one of the first collations of African data ethics perspectives for the pluralistic AI ethics community.

Proud to announce that my first FAccT @facct.bsky.social paper, “African Data Ethics: A Discursive Framework for Black Decolonial AI” will be presented at the 8th annual ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency next week in Athens, Greece! programs.sigchi.org/facct/2025/p...

Wow, really excited to have our paper highlighted by Alondra Nelson! I'll be presenting this paper at @facct.bsky.social next Thursday at 9am (local time) for anyone interested in learning more! A paper thread is soon to come 👀

Alondra Nelson@alondra.bsky.social · last yr.

What are the African values and ethical theories that can inform responsible data science practices in Africa?...We conduct a thematic analysis [and]...derived an ethical framework consisting of six major principles rooted in the realities of data science work in Africa arxiv.org/html/2502.16...

The Chronicle reports on the NSF cuts, including notes from me and a few other researchers, all of whom were advancing information and STEM literacy nationwide: www.chronicle.com/article/the-... Making America worse, one cut at a time.

The Trump Administration Has Canceled Millions in NSF Grants

Projects related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and misinformation and disinformation were cut “to protect the interests of the government,” the agency said.

chronicle.com

We are only one week away from our Distinguished Lecture w/ Alondra Nelson (@alondra.bsky.social)! Algorithmic Agnotology: On AI, Ignorance, and Power Please join us Thursday, April 3rd at 7:00 PM on the @uofwa.bsky.social campus! For more info & to register: techpolicylab.uw.edu/events/event...

Sigh. Here we go again. It's really important that people are smart about this story re: Trump admin using Signal to discuss war plans. The center-left media wants to make the story about Trump admin fucking up, which they did. But in the process they're falsely implying that Signal is "insecure."🧵

#tdih 1968, Howard University students took over the Admin Building with demands around discipline policies & African American history courses. One of many stories left out when textbooks end Civil Rights Movement in 1965. More + '68 doc, "Color Us Black"⬇️ www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/ho...

March 19, 1968: Howard University Protest

Howard University students seized the Administration Building, demanding changes in the discipline policy, the addition of courses in African American history, and more.

zinnedproject.org

In-context learning can be an effective way to conduct value alignment of LLMs through examples, but when there are multiple pluralistic groups, are the best examples for one group also the ones for another? We explore this in our paper 🌟SPICA🌟 (🧵1/9)

Are any of you content creators on YouTube or can share this with any creators on YouTube? We're looking to test out a system we've built to enable creators to make custom filters for their comments, no technical skills needed! We offer $20 for a 1 hour remote session where you can try out the tool.

More of this! Being from the Midwest, I knew all about the great migration and the lives and impact of our people in the Midwest and South. I didn’t know much about Black folks in the PNW until I moved out here. Same with New England when I lived in NH.