“It has become increasingly clear in the recent years that AI research, far from producing neutral tools, has been concentrating power in the hands of governments and companies and away from marginalized communities. Unfortunately, NeurIPS has lacked a venue explicitly dedicated to understanding and addressing the root of these problems. As Black feminist scholar Angela Davis famously said, “Radical simply means grasping things at the root.” Resistance AI exposes the root problem of AI to be how technology is used to rearrange power in the world. AI researchers engaged in Resistance AI both resist AI that centralizes power into the hands of the few and dream up and build human/AI systems that put power in the hands of the people. This workshop will enable AI researchers in general, researchers engaged in Resistance AI, and marginalized communities in particular to reflect on AI-fueled inequity and co-create tactics for how to address this issue in our own work.”
https://sites.google.com/view/resistance-ai-neurips-20
“We recognize that power in society is distributed unevenly and People of Color, Black, Indigenous, Womxn, Queer, Gender Non-Conforming, Poor, Disabled, and other communities are pushed to the margins.
Resistance AI centers these communities at the margins. The topic itself does this by engaging in conversations about how technology shifts power, and how it can create power balance by shifting power back to these communities.
As organizers, we are committed to centering these communities by inviting nearly or all Black womxn or Indigenous speakers. These are the folks historically left out of this conversation, despite being the leaders in the field.
We are also committed to running a workshop that fosters the inclusion of all attendees. We intend to make sure that the workshop’s activities, including participatory co-creation activities are designed for many kinds of accessibility needs.”
