A+ Alliance

Feminist AI Research Network Global Webinars: Feminist AI Prototypes
2023-10-26 15:30 - 17:00 (Europe/Helsinki)
The fourth installment of the series will focus on Feminist AI Prototypes with:

La Independiente: Gender Perspectives in AI Crowdwork (PIT Policy Lab, Mexico)
E.D.I.A.: A tool to overcome technical barriers to bias assessment (Via Libre, Argentina)

Conversatorios FAIR LAC: Género y Discapacidad en la Inteligencia Artificial
2023-10-11 08:30 - 10:30 (America/Chicago) | Conversatorios LAC Hub 2023-2024
Entre octubre de 2023 a febrero de 2024, el LAC Hub de la Red Feminista de Investigación en Inteligencia Artificial – f<a+i>r promueve un nuevo ciclo de webinars en lo cual participantes de la red e invitadas compartirán sus perspectivas y convidarán a discusiones sobre los retos interseccionales de la IA feminista en América Latina y el Caribe.
El primer evento será “Perspectivas de Género y Discapacidad en la Inteligencia Artificial”, el día 11 de octubre, a las 08:30h, con las invitadas: Mariana Díaz Figueroa, Wanda Muñoz y Tatiana Revilla.

Feminist AI Research Network Global Webinars: Compost Engineers
2023-09-25 15:30 - 17:00 (Europe/Helsinki)
The third installment of this series focuses on Compost engineers with Joana Varon (Coding Rights) and Lucía Egaña (Pluriversidad Nómada)

The 8th ASIA Network Meeting
2023-09-18 20:00 - 21:30 (Asia/Krasnoyarsk)
Dr. Supavadee Aramvith will talk about inclusive algorithms and design for AI in the 8th ASIA Network Meeting organized by the Southeast Asian Hub of the Incubating Feminist AI Project.

Feminist AI Research Network Global Webinars: tfGBV
2023-09-14 15:30 - 17:00 (Europe/Helsinki)
In the second installment of this series we’ll be delving into Technology facilitated Gender Based Violence & Access to Justice : new approaches from the Majority World with:
– AymurAI (pilot). Measuring gender based violence in Latin America
Data Género, Argentina
– SOF+ IA (prototype) A report-a-bot for tfGBV in Chile
Datos Protegidos (Protected Data) & ODEGI – Observatorio de Estadísticas de Género e Interseccionalidades
(Gender and Intersectionality Statistics Observatory), Chile
– SafeHER (prototype): AI (em)powered mobility
De La Salle University, Phillipines

Feminist AI Research Network Global Webinars
2023-08-21 15:30 - 17:00 (Europe/Helsinki)
What is Feminist AI? And who are the Majority World players creating pro-social AI, designed with inclusion at the core, creating new opportunities & innovative correction of inequities? Join us as we explore concrete applications of these principles throughout 2023-2024.
In our first session, we’ll be delving into Feminist AI Frameworks I : Towards a feminist framework for developing AI: from principles to practice with Derechos Digitales & friends

MENA Hub Third network meeting "Feminist Phenomenology and Applied AI examples in MENA”
2023-08-02 15:30 - 16:30 (Europe/Moscow)
Joining us in our webinar as a speaker is Aliah Yacoub, an AI and Philosophy scholar. She is currently the head of techQualia at Synapse Analytics. Her research interests include employing existential phenomenology to explore the dynamic entanglement of body and mind in consciousness, machine sentience, and artificial cognition.
In this webinar, Aliah will be discussing the connection of feminism, social justice, and AI in the region from a philosophical point of view. She will also provide examples of the challenges associated with the use of applied AI in the region and the role of feminist theoretical frameworks in promoting gender equality and mitigating discrimination and biases.
Registeration link: https://aucegypt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIvf-qsqjwtHNOG7ccJjwPIUrgDFTzJuI82

La Independiente: Gender perspectives in AI crowd work
2023-07-27 10:00 - 13:00, 2023-07-26 10:00 - 2023-07-27 13:00 UTC
In order to function, algorithms require millions of labeled training data to learn, recognize and categorize information. This labeling is often done by crowd workers who are neglected in system designs and whose well being is seldom considered. Latin American and Caribbean workers have been identified as significant crowd work contributors depending on crowd work as a steady source of income. However most studies on crowd work center around Western women and fail to take into account the personal and professional advancement of Latin American women.
PIT Policy are holding a forum on feminist design with crowdworkers, platforms and experts discussing what needs to change and what can be done to improve the quality of experience for AI crowd workers in LAC and throughout the globe.
Crowd Work Platform Forum: Policy Perspectives Forum

Day One Wednesday 26th, July 2023, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm Mexico City time

Day Two Thursday 27th, July 2023, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm Mexico’s City time

Format: Online (Zoom)

To confirm your participation, please register here

Alliance @RightsCon
2023-06-05 12:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | Costa Rica, Costa Rica
We’ll be attending RightsCon with much of our leadership, many of our colleagues, discussing Digital Rights issues and their intersection with Feminist AI…as well as celebrating with co-leaders of the <A+> Alliance for Inclusive Algorithms – Tecnologico de Costa Rica !

AI Transparency Resolution Strategy Session
2023-06-04 15:00 - 21:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | Costa Rica, Costa Rica
A strategy session with allies to discuss the proposed draft.
Resolution on Upholding the Human Right to Transparency in Algorithmic Decision-Making: Empowering Individuals to Know When Their Lives Are Impacted by Automated Systems.

Alliance Leadership Retreat
2023-06-01 12:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | Chachagua, Costa Rica

AI4D: Gender & Climate Change
2023-05-25 14:30 - 15:30 (Europe/Paris)
Gender Justice / Climate Justice approaches. What mitigation and adaptation strategies and innovations are needed?

f< A+I >r Dinner with Subgrantees & Allies @RightsCon
2023-05-23 00:00 - 03:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | Costa Rica, Costa Rica

7th ASIA Network Meting
2023-05-15 20:00 - 21:00 (Asia/Krasnoyarsk)
The upcoming ASIA Network Meeting will feature the winning team of the recently concluded Feminist AI Hackathon, which has held last March. The team, consisting of a recent Bachelor’s graduate in psychology from Chulalongkorn University and a high school student from Boston, Massachusetts, will talk about their project, “Eudaimonium”, an app that follows the feminist principles outlined in our Project.

The talk will take place on Monday, May 15, 2023, from 8 pm to 9 pm Thailand time (UTC +7) on Zoom. Details are available in the next poster:

Fair Webinar: Procurement
2023-05-04 14:30 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris)
What would open, inclusive and gender responsive AI procurement policies look like? And how could they help jumpstart a new innovation economy that finally might harness the intellectual capital of <50% of the population?

AI4D: Gender & Agriculture
2023-04-27 14:30 - 15:30 (Europe/Paris)
What are the problems? Where are the gaps? How can it help women and men in the field?

Meet our new f<a+i>r cohort of papers & prototypes
2023-04-13 14:30 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris)
Our newest f<a+i>r cohort of papers & prototypes from around the world have begun their work are ready to share their research questions and mission with you!

Feminist AI : Where have we been this year, what have we built, and how are we going forward - Caitlin Kraft-Buchman, Jaime Gutiérrez Alfaro
2023-03-22 15:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris) | Allies in Practice
https://pretalx.com/mozilla-festival-2023/talk/WGU3RP/

fr Prototypes: The Feminist AI Research Network Great Reveal - Caitlin Kraft-Buchman, Jaime Gutiérrez Alfaro
2023-03-22 15:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris) | Autonomy & Governance
https://pretalx.com/mozilla-festival-2023/talk/XZURXJ/

Decolonialism, Feminism & AI - Caitlin Kraft-Buchman, Jaime Gutiérrez Alfaro
2023-03-21 17:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Paris)
https://pretalx.com/mozilla-festival-2023/talk/T3PHNK/

AI4D: Gender, AI, and New STEM strategies
2023-03-16 14:30 - 15:30 (Europe/Paris)
From distance learning to gamification, what is the newest research on including girls in STEM, including Teacher Ed and Lifelong Kindergarten / Scratch for low resource environments.

<AI & Equality> Inclusive Human Rights Frameworks for New Technologies
2023-03-09 14:30 - 16:00 UTC
How can Human Rights Frameworks be the starting point for the creation of new tech & innovation? What questions need to be asked and answered to harness the astounding capabilities of AI with its promises of dystopia or utopia? Can Human Rights Frameworks bring us to some middle ground?

Algorithmic Decision Making: Call for Expressions of Interest
2023-02-14
Algorithmic Decision Making systems are being used around the globe. What are new models for delivering and deploying more effective social protection? How can AI with its big data capacity and new social science collaborate “to ensure a higher standard of living for the vulnerable and disadvantaged, to devise new ways of caring for those who have been left behind, and more effective techniques for addressing the needs of those who are struggling to enter or re-enter the labour market” ? Join us to hear about our Call.
This call focuses on Algorithmic Decision Making Systems (ADMs) in LAC, SEA and MENA for those whose municipalities and countries currently use ADMs and also for those whose municipalities and countries currently contemplate their use.
Led by the <A+> Alliance, a network of technologists, academics & activists working together to ensure new algorithmic systems do not embed already biased systems into our collective futures, our mission is to explore new models that reach beyond mitigation of bias and correct for historic inequity in order to help ensure a more fair, just and inclusive collective future for all.
DUE DATE FOR APPLICATIONS EXTENDED TO FEBRUARY 14 2023! APPLY NOW!

Call for Expressions of Interest Papers:
Proof of Concept for NEW models of ADMs delivery that could address:

Social Service Allocation

Housing lotteries
School allocation
Aid to families with children
Pension allocation

Sector Specific Innovation

Health
Financial credit scoring
Energy sharing
Commons or collective models of governance

Call for Expression of Interest Policies:
Automated Decision Making Policy based on 21st century social science best practices:

Procurement processes
Government transparency laws
Algorithmic auditing
Open government and community based co-creation of ADMs,etc.

Call for Expression of Interest PROTOTYPES:
Prototypes: Past the proof of concept phase and ready to be built and deployed
These prototypes will provide a NEW model of ADMs delivery and have a strong interdisciplinary team inclusive of a social scientist, technologist, community organisers, and a collaboration with or proposed with a municipality to test the prototype.

The Call for Expressions of Interest is part of the f<a+i>r feminist AI research network, supported by IDRC, a three-year initiative (2021-2024) to research and create new algorithmic and social science models that enhance intersection with core public policy agendas in the Global South.

Fair Prototypes: The Feminist AI Research Network Great Reveal
2023-02-09 14:30 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris)
Meet, discuss, try, question, contribute to the three f<a+i>r Feminist AI Research Network Prototypes developed from papers in 2022 and now built and delivered in February 2023. Meet the activist teams and their practical, applied, and potentially world changing feminist creations. Help us improve, spread the word, iterate, replicate and share!
INSIDE:

Data Género’s AymurAI Automation Tools towards a Feminist Judiciary Reform in Argentina and Mexico
Via Libre’s tool to overcome and democratize technical barriers for bias assessment in human language technologies
Derechos Digitales’ Feminist framework for AI development: from principles to practice,

These are amazing projects built by 3 mighty Latin American NGOs.
For more info on the projects:
Explainers:
AymurAI http://e.google.com/file/d/1xxz5g562J_ZM3zecY0VmXfHfO53Tggaj/view
Via Libre https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OSjGBc7oFRhuVGPbk-U4sWnWGh432ZuT/view
Derechos Digitales https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5pMd6ys22yU
Original Papers:
Data Género https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VKeeSdJz6-8DoEbetQ8f1wTH1ORqvIXV/view?usp=sharing
Via Libre https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ppdf6K8p4rYv5U-MLUql4o7fwTpoKheW/view?usp=sharing
Derechos Digitales https://www.derechosdigitales.org/wp-content/uploads/Fair_Doc_Eng.pdf
Not only do we live and breathe this subject, but these three activist organizations are bringing some world changing ideas and feminist principles to the table. Socialising the idea of Feminist AI designed with inclusion at the core of the code, and building prototypes with concrete research that needs to be shared in order to be used, improved, iterated, replicated, and inspire the the inter-disciplinary, inter-regional inter-operative collaborations needed to bring the technology we need in order to leave no one behind.
We actively work daily with a large global multi disciplinary team ranging from Bangkok to Cairo, Geneva to Mexico City and San Jose with fellow travellers in Manila, Jakarta, Kampala, Dakar, Abuja, Cape Town, and Buenos Aires from computer science, machine learning, NLP, anthropology, economics, behavioural psychology, STS, social work, development and activists in indigenous rights, workers rights, and women’s rights.. We are social scientists, technologists, policy wonks, and activists.

The Second Meeting: ‘Algorithmic Decision Making (ADM), Feminism and Inclusion in MENA: Unpacking Concepts and Call for proposals
2023-02-08 15:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Helsinki)
Speakers: Manal Jalloul and Nadine Weheba
Moderator: Nagla Rizk
Date: February 8th, 2023
The Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) hosted its second webinar as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) hub of the F<a+i>r Hubs Network titled “Algorithmic Decision Making (ADM), Feminism and Inclusion in MENA: Unpacking Concepts and Call for proposals” on Wednesday February 8th via Zoom. Joining the webinar as a speaker was Dr. Manal Jalloul (Founder of AI Lab and NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute, Certified Instructor and University Ambassador at the American University of Beirut). Dr. Jalloul unpacked concepts of ADM and discussed how it can be harnessed for gender inclusion in MENA. We also discussed the project’s latest call for proposals, titled: “Incubating Feminist AI: Call for Expressions of Interest Algorithmic Decision Making Systems”. The call focuses on harnessing ADM for more equitable outcomes and models deploying more effective and inclusive social protection in MENA.

Key takeaways:

It all goes back to data. Due to historical norms and gender discrimination, there is bias in the data available that is used to create and train ADM systems. Data needs to be more inclusive and representative for ADM systems to work fairly.

Bias exists in the design of the algorithms themselves; algorithms are designed by people with gender-biases. The teams that develop these solutions need to be diverse in order to prevent human biases from impacting the technology.

ADMs have the potential to help meet SDGs such as equal health, gender equality and ending domestic violence.

AI can be used to identify inequalities in data and ADM systems. AI and ADM systems must be tested prior to deployment and before using them on a wider scale. We can use AI to test new technologies to ensure that there are no biases of treatment.

AI policy-making in MENA needs to be data driven in order for policies to inform our unique needs as a region. AI can be used to extract insights from data such as correlations, gaps, inequalities and areas that need attention. We can also use AI to gather data on the impact of policies implemented and make modifications accordingly.

Once datasets are diverse, they can then include the scope of women who are usually outside of national statistics and data sets such as those in the informal economy whose data cannot be found in national statistics.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k_f5BDm_dg

Algorithmic Decision Making (ADM), Feminism and Inclusion in MENA: Unpacking Concepts and Call for proposals
2023-02-08 15:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Helsinki)
The Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) is hosting its second webinar as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) hub of the F<a+i>r Hubs Network titled “Algorithmic Decision Making (ADM), Feminism and Inclusion in MENA: Unpacking Concepts and Call for proposals” on Wednesday 8th February at 3:00 pm Cairo local time via Zoom.

Joining the webinar as a speaker is Dr. Manal Jalloul (Founder of AI Lab and NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute, Certified Instructor and University Ambassador at the American University of Beirut). Dr. Jalloul will be unpacking concepts of ADM and discussing how it can be harnessed for gender inclusion in MENA. We will also be discussing the project’s latest call for proposals, titled: “Incubating Feminist AI: Call for Expressions of Interest Algorithmic Decision Making Systems”. The call focuses on harnessing ADM for more equitable outcomes and models deploying more effective and inclusive social protection in MENA.

Register here: https://aucegypt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcuc-Csqz4rGNKyOo_VvkvxwOmX4aPGJHqN

Data Bias
2023-01-26 14:30 - 15:30 UTC
From new datasets to debasing techniques

What’s the news from Africa? And what are the solutions being developed there? The start of our new webinar series with AI4D sharing the work of extraordinary African AI researchers with their counterparts and the world.

INSIDE: Algorithms based on incomplete, corrupt or biased data; models built from those algorithms that have other additional stereotypical assumptions of gender, race and class at their core; machines that learn on and codify these ingrained patterns; and the neural networks that detect more complex patterns and newly proxy old stereotypical assumptions — are wiring historic bias, inequality and discrimination into our new systems. These will evolve into more effective, and more difficult to dismantle, digital colonial and patriarchal social structures and governance if we do not act now.

However, this situation presents an opportunity as new systems proliferate and are being designed—to revisit old assumptions and conceive provision of social services with ideas of efficacy and equity at the core — instead of only using the ADM process to digitize old programs opting perhaps for only making them more ‘efficient’.
A Feminist AI would focus on bringing social programs in line with 21st research and values, dedicated to finding ways to make the programs more effective (inclusive, transformational) as opposed to merely more ‘efficient’.

AI4D Webinars: Gender Knowledge Synthesis
Concept: Sharing the work of extraordinary African AI researchers with their counterparts and the world, focussing on issues of primordial importance to create a more inclusive and equitable world with AI and emerging technologies.

Where: Online / Zoom
When: Every 6 weeks
Who: African researchers from the AI4D family and researchers from Africa working on complementary issues.
What: 45 minute Roundtable with Panel format. 5 minute landscape presentations with moderated discussion followed by Q&A

Labors of Artificial Artificial Intelligence: Case Studies from the Philippines
2023-01-19 15:00 - 16:30 (Asia/Krasnoyarsk)
The sixth episode of the Asia Network Meetings will take place on Thursday, January 19, 2023 at 3.00pm Thailand time (UBC +7) on Zoom.
Speaker: Dr. Stephanie Dimatulac Santos
Duration: 90 minutes (3pm to 4.30pm)
About Stephanie:
Dr. Stephanie Dimatulac Santos is an Assistant Professor of Gender, Women, and Sexualities Studies at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her interdisciplinary research employs ethnography, cultural analysis, and computational humanities to study the flows of labor and capital between Southeast Asia and the Global North. She has a PhD in Gender Studies from UCLA and is currently a Fulbright ASEAN Research Fellow with the Center for the Study of Technology and Society at Chulalongkorn University

Zoom info:
Soraj Hongladarom is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Labors of Artificial Artificial Intelligence: Case Studies from the Philippines
Time: Jan 19, 2023 15:00 Bangkok
Join Zoom Meeting
https://chula.zoom.us/j/91540574886?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 915 4057 4886
Password: [REDACTED]

The Tech We Need & Global Roundtable
2022-12-15 15:30 - 17:00 (Europe/Paris)
The Tech We Need is the <A+> Alliance commitment to the Generation Equality Forum UN Women Action Coalition for Technology & Innovation for Gender Equality. A small pilot has begun in Erizo Santamaria near Tec Costa Rica’s Alajuela campus. Guests to be announced.
