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Nov 29, 20216 min read
Book Review: Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook and the World
What does it mean to be smart? This is the opening question posed in Cade Metz’s Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google,...

Sep 22, 20213 min read
Robots, the cure for loneliness?
When I talk to people about AI, inevitably we land on the topic of killer robots. This image of The Terminator and other superintelligent...

Apr 7, 20213 min read
Prediction is the problem, predictability is the solution?
Many of the thorny ethical issues surrounding AI arise when it is used to make predictions about people, particularly predictions that...

Feb 25, 20213 min read
Search algorithms continue to oppress
In February 2019, I gathered in a jam packed hotel ballroom in downtown Edmonton to hear Dr. Safiya Noble talk about her book Algorithms...

Feb 9, 20211 min read
Hate Over Health: Understanding racial discrimination in the age of COVID-19
I had the great pleasure of sharing the virtual stage tonight with Dr. Cheryl Prescod, Executive Director of the Black Creek Community...

Feb 1, 20213 min read
Requerimiento, viruses, vaccines and revolutions: Fresh takes on surveillance capitalism
I'm re-reading Shoshana Zuboff's The Age of Surveillance Capitalism - the first book selected by the Women in AI Ethics bookclub for...

Jan 4, 20213 min read
AI4Society Dialogues: A new podcast
Reflecting back on 2020, one of the things that fuelled me is great conversations. This past fall, I was incredibly fortunate to speak...

Dec 15, 20202 min read
WAIE and the power of community
This is the time of year when I get reflective, taking stock of the last 12 months while looking ahead to the coming year. To say it's...

Nov 28, 20205 min read
Book Review: Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control
How we currently build AI is fundamentally flawed. We need new principles and a new process to build intelligent machines that are able...

Oct 2, 20203 min read
Cut and paste culture: The hidden cost of reusing data
Recently, I was on an email thread where a templated email was reused out of context leading to a slightly confusing and funny exchange...

Sep 25, 20204 min read
Ethics or regulation? We need both.
I had a chance to catch two amazing presentation in the past two days - cyber-security expert Bruce Schneier and distinguished computer...

Sep 17, 20203 min read
Entrepreneur Diary Series: Taking the leap
Entrepreneurship is something we romanticize but the reality is a lot of hard work and outcomes that are far from certain. I've had some...

Sep 17, 20203 min read
That's a wrap: Thanking my community and planning next steps
I'm thrilled to say - I am DONE! I handed in my final research paper this week and now I await graduation. I have been fortunate to have...

Sep 15, 20202 min read
Conferences and pumpkin-spice lattes
It's definitely fall. The air is cooler, the leaves are turning shades of red, pumpkin-spice lattes are back and it's conference season....

Jun 23, 20203 min read
It's Focus Group Time! Three Tools for Developing Ethical AI
My first job after finishing my undergrad in the mid 90's was Research Coordinator for Metroline Research. I helped manage the Vancouver...

May 23, 20204 min read
Research update: collecting data, prepping for a presentation and "COVID-izing" my work
Generally when things are quiet on the blog, it means I'm really busy with my research. That's certainly been the case this past month....

Apr 17, 20205 min read
“Glassholes” and toilet paper: Consumer attitudes about AI
Back in 2013, Google launched Google Glass. It was hailed at that time as a technology set to revolutionize how we interact with the...

Feb 8, 20204 min read
Data sovereignty, the intelligence problem & a Big Yellow Taxi: Day Two of AI, Ethics and Society
They paved paradise (and put up a parking lot) It was the combination of being in NYC and a references to asphalt that made me think...

Feb 7, 20204 min read
Mend it or end it, who decides? Day One of the AI, Ethics and Society Conference
It's been a super full day exploring the landscape surrounding the many societal questions relating to artificial intelligence and...

Feb 6, 20203 min read
Computerize the race problem? Charlton McIlwain's opening keynote at AI, Ethics and Society
I'm in NYC for the AI, Ethics and Society conference. Tonight, our opening keynote speaker was Charlton McIlwain who recently published a...