AfroTech Panel: Diversity in Technology Leadership

At AfroTech I joined a panel with Carl Desir and Lamar Hines on how diversity in technology teams helps reduce bias in AI. I was vice president of technology at R/GA at the time.

The example I used was one that stays with people: research had found that the cameras on self driving cars were worse at recognising people with darker skin. That is not an abstract fairness debate, it is a safety failure that traces directly back to who was in the data and who was in the room. I argued for recruiting from bootcamps like Coding Dojo and for mentoring people early, which is the unglamorous part that actually changes who is available to hire.