Timnit Gebru

On safeguarding independent research in the age of big tech

- BY MEGHA SATYANARAYANA

TIMNIT GEBRU IS A COMPUTER SCIENTIST, an engineer, and founder and executive director of the Distributed AI Research Institute, an independent organization conducting community-rooted research into technological tools and systems.

She is also co-founder of Black in AI, a nonprofit that works to increase the presence, inclusion, visibility and health of Black people in the field of artificial intelligence. Gebru is the treasurer for AddisCoder, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching algorithms and computer programming to Ethiopian high school students.

An edited transcript of the interview follows. For the full conversation, visit www.ScientificAmerican.com

How would you describe the current state of American science?

I’m in the field of AI, and in my field, I would describe it as corporate-driven and sloppy. There are a lot of basic practices—for example, not testing on your training data, transparency, appropriate documentation—that are just not being followed. So it’s also misleading.

What needs to change in American science?