Deborah Raji
{{Short description|Nigerian-Canadian computer scientist and activist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Inioluwa Deborah Raji
| image = Deb Raji.jpg
| birth_place = Port Harcourt, Nigeria
| birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date|24|2020|06|17|slash=y}}
| nationality = Canadian
| fields = Computer Science
| workplaces = Mozilla Foundation
Partnership on AI
AI Now Institute
Google
MIT Media Lab
| alma_mater = University of Toronto
| known_for = Algorithmic bias
Fairness (machine learning)
Algorithmic auditing and evaluation
| awards =
}}
Inioluwa Deborah Raji (born {{birth based on age as of date|24|2020|06|17|noage=1|slash=y}}{{Cite web| last=Hao |first=Karen |title=Inioluwa Deborah Raji|url=https://www.technologyreview.com/innovator/inioluwa-deborah-raji/|date=2020-06-17 |access-date=2021-02-27|website=MIT Technology Review|language=en}}) is a Nigerian-Canadian computer scientist and activist who works on algorithmic bias, AI accountability, and algorithmic auditing. Raji has previously worked with Joy Buolamwini, Timnit Gebru, and the Algorithmic Justice League on researching gender and racial bias in facial recognition technology.{{Cite web|last=Schwab|first=Katharine|date=2021-02-26|title='This is bigger than just Timnit': How Google tried to silence a critic and ignited a movement|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/90608471/timnit-gebru-google-ai-ethics-equitable-tech-movement|url-status=live|website=Fast Company|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226121216/https://www.fastcompany.com/90608471/timnit-gebru-google-ai-ethics-equitable-tech-movement |archive-date=2021-02-26 }} She has also worked with Google’s Ethical AI team and been a research fellow at the Partnership on AI and AI Now Institute at New York University working on how to operationalize ethical considerations in machine learning engineering practice.{{Cite web|date=2020-10-16|title=Mozilla Welcomes Two New Fellows in Trustworthy AI|url=https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/mozilla-welcomes-two-new-fellows-trustworthy-ai/|access-date=2021-02-27|website=Mozilla Foundation|language=en}} A current Mozilla fellow, she has been recognized by MIT Technology Review and Forbes as one of the world's top young innovators.{{Cite web|title=Inioluwa Deborah Raji {{!}} Innovators Under 35|url=https://www.innovatorsunder35.com/the-list/inioluwa-deborah-raji/|access-date=2021-02-26|website=www.innovatorsunder35.com}}{{Cite web|title=Inioluwa Deborah Raji - Forbes 30 Under 30|url=https://www.forbes.com/profile/inioluwa-deborah-raji/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-02-27|website=Forbes|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201201145725/https://www.forbes.com/profile/inioluwa-deborah-raji/ |archive-date=2020-12-01 }}
Early life and education
Raji was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and moved to Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, when she was four years old. Eventually her family moved to Ottawa. She studied Engineering Science at the University of Toronto, graduating in 2019.{{Cite web|date=2019-02-11|title=She is holding companies accountable for biased AI facial technology|url=https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/this-u-of-t-engineering-student-is-holding-companies-accountable-for-biased-ai-facial-technology/|access-date=2021-02-26|website=U of T Engineering News|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|date=2020-06-23|title=U of T Engineering alumna Inioluwa Deborah Raji named to MIT Technology Review's Top Innovators Under 35|url=https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/u-of-t-engineering-alumna-inioluwa-deborah-raji-named-to-mits-technology-reviews-top-innovators-under-35/|access-date=2021-02-27|website=U of T Engineering News|language=en-US}} In 2015, she founded Project Include, a nonprofit providing increased student access to engineering education, mentorship, and resources in low income and immigrant communities in the Greater Toronto Area.{{Cite web|date=2021-02-03|title=Deborah Raji of Mozilla on Forbes 30 under 30, Mentorship in AI & more|url=http://blog.re-work.co/interview-with-deborah-raji-forbes-30-under-30/|access-date=2021-02-27|website=RE•WORK Blog - AI & Deep Learning News|language=en}} She started a Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley [https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-raji-065751b2 Deborah Raji. LinkedIn]{{Self-published source|date=September 2024}} in Aug 2021.
Career and research
Raji worked with Joy Buolamwini at the MIT Media Lab and Algorithmic Justice League, where she audited commercial facial recognition technologies from Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, Face++, and Kairos.{{Cite journal|date=January 27, 2019|title=Actionable auditing: Investigating the impact of publicly naming biased performance results of commercial ai products|url=https://www.thetalkingmachines.com/sites/default/files/2019-02/aies-19_paper_223.pdf|journal=Proceedings of the 2019 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society|pages=429–435}} They found that these technologies were significantly less accurate for darker-skinned women than for white men.{{Cite news|last=Singer|first=Natasha|date=2019-01-25|title=Amazon Is Pushing Facial Technology That a Study Says Could Be Biased (Published 2019)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/24/technology/amazon-facial-technology-study.html|access-date=2021-02-27|issn=0362-4331}} With support from other top AI researchers and increased public pressure and campaigning, their work led IBM and Amazon to agree to support facial recognition regulation and later halt the sale of their product to police for at least a year.{{Cite web|last=Heilweil|first=Rebecca|date=2020-06-10|title=Why it matters that IBM is getting out of the facial recognition business|url=https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/10/21285658/ibm-facial-recognition-technology-bias-business|access-date=2021-02-27|website=Vox|language=en}}{{Cite web|date=2020-06-10|title=IBM walked away from facial recognition. What about Amazon and Microsoft?|url=https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/10/ibm-walked-away-from-facial-recognition-what-about-amazon-and-microsoft/|access-date=2021-02-27|website=VentureBeat|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=The two-year fight to stop Amazon from selling face recognition to the police|url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/06/12/1003482/amazon-stopped-selling-police-face-recognition-fight/|access-date=2021-02-27|website=MIT Technology Review|language=en}} Raji also interned at machine learning startup Clarifai, where she worked on a computer vision model for flagging images.
She participated in a research mentorship program at Google and worked with their Ethical AI team on creating model cards, a documentation framework for more transparent machine learning model reporting. She also co-led the development of internal auditing practices at Google. Her contributions at Google were separately presented and published at the AAAI conference and ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency.{{cite arXiv|last1=Raji|first1=Inioluwa Deborah|last2=Gebru|first2=Timnit|last3=Mitchell|first3=Margaret|last4=Buolamwini|first4=Joy|last5=Lee|first5=Joonseok|last6=Denton|first6=Emily|date=2020-01-03|title=Saving Face: Investigating the Ethical Concerns of Facial Recognition Auditing|class=cs.CY|eprint=2001.00964}}{{cite arXiv|last1=Raji|first1=Inioluwa Deborah|last2=Smart|first2=Andrew|last3=White|first3=Rebecca N.|last4=Mitchell|first4=Margaret|last5=Gebru|first5=Timnit|last6=Hutchinson|first6=Ben|last7=Smith-Loud|first7=Jamila|last8=Theron|first8=Daniel|last9=Barnes|first9=Parker|date=2020-01-03|title=Closing the AI Accountability Gap: Defining an End-to-End Framework for Internal Algorithmic Auditing|class=cs.CY|eprint=2001.00973}}{{Cite book|last1=Mitchell|first1=Margaret|last2=Wu|first2=Simone|last3=Zaldivar|first3=Andrew|last4=Barnes|first4=Parker|last5=Vasserman|first5=Lucy|last6=Hutchinson|first6=Ben|last7=Spitzer|first7=Elena|last8=Raji|first8=Inioluwa Deborah|last9=Gebru|first9=Timnit|title=Proceedings of the Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency |chapter=Model Cards for Model Reporting |date=2019-01-29|pages=220–229|doi=10.1145/3287560.3287596|arxiv=1810.03993|isbn=9781450361255|s2cid=52946140}}
In 2019, Raji was a summer research fellow at The Partnership on AI working on setting industry machine learning transparency standards and benchmarking norms.{{cite arXiv|last1=Xiang|first1=Alice|last2=Raji|first2=Inioluwa Deborah|date=2019-11-25|title=On the Legal Compatibility of Fairness Definitions|class=cs.CY|eprint=1912.00761}}{{Cite web|date=2021-02-01|title=About Face: A Survey of Facial Recognition Evaluation|url=https://deepai.org/publication/about-face-a-survey-of-facial-recognition-evaluation|access-date=2021-02-26|website=DeepAI}} Raji was a Tech Fellow at the AI Now Institute worked on algorithmic and AI auditing. Currently, she is a fellow at the Mozilla Foundation researching algorithmic auditing and evaluation.
Raji's work on bias in facial recognition systems has been highlighted in the 2020 documentary Coded Bias directed by Shalini Kantayya.{{Cite web|title=Coded Bias: Director Shalini Kantayya on Solving Facial Recognition's Serious Flaws|url=https://hai.stanford.edu/blog/coded-bias-director-shalini-kantayya-solving-facial-recognitions-serious-flaws|access-date=2021-03-15|website=Stanford HAI|date=14 September 2020 |language=en}}
= Selected awards =
- 2019 Venture Beat AI Innovations Award in category AI for Good (received with Joy Buolamwini and Timnit Gebru){{Cite web|date=2019-07-12|title=AI innovation winners announced in San Francisco|url=https://www.innovationmatrix.com/news/ai-innovation-winners-san-francisco|access-date=2021-02-27|website=Innovation Matrix|language=en-US|archive-date=2020-12-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201209203323/https://www.innovationmatrix.com/news/ai-innovation-winners-san-francisco|url-status=dead}}
- 2020 MIT Technology Review 35 Under 35 Innovator Award
- 2020 EFF Pioneer Award (received with Buolamwini and Gebru) {{Cite web|date=2020-08-24|title=Pioneer Award Ceremony 2020|url=https://www.eff.org/awards/pioneer/2020|access-date=2021-02-27|website=Electronic Frontier Foundation|language=en}}
- 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 Award in Enterprise Technology
- 2021 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics Hall of Fame Honoree{{Cite web|title=Hall of Fame|url=https://100brilliantwomeninaiethics.com/the-list/hall-of-fame/|access-date=2021-02-27|website=100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics™|language=en-US}}
- 2023 Time magazine 100 Most Influential People in AI{{cite magazine |last1=Shaw |first1=Simmone |title=Inioluwa Deborah Raji |url=https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/6311106/inioluwa-deborah-raji/ |access-date=October 3, 2023 |magazine=Time |date=September 7, 2023}}
References
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Category:Artificial intelligence researchers
Category:University of Toronto alumni
Category:Canadian computer scientists
Category:People from Mississauga
Category:Scientists from Ontario
Category:Machine learning researchers
Category:Facial recognition software
Category:Canadian women computer scientists
Category:Computer vision researchers