Su Lin Blodgett, a postdoctoral researcher in the Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics (FATE) group at Microsoft Research Montréal, will deliver a talk as part of CSRAI's Young Achievers Symposium.
“Towards Equitable Language Technologies”
Language technologies are now ubiquitous. Yet the benefits of these technologies do not accrue evenly to all people, and they can be harmful; they can reproduce stereotypes, prevent speakers of “non-standard” language varieties from participating fully in public discourse, and reinscribe historical patterns of linguistic discrimination. In this talk, Blodgett will take a tour through the rapidly emerging body of research examining bias and harm in language technologies. She will offer some perspective on the many challenges of this work, ranging from how we anticipate and measure language-related harms to how we grapple with the complexities of where and how language technologies are encountered, and with the institutions that produce them.
About the Speaker:
Su Lin Blodgett is a postdoctoral researcher in the Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics (FATE) group at Microsoft Research Montréal. Her research focuses on the ethical and social implications of language technologies. She completed her Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she was supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
About the Young Achievers Symposium
The Young Achievers Symposium highlights early career researchers in diverse fields of AI for social impact. The symposium series seeks to focus on emerging research, stimulate discussions, and initiate collaborations that can advance research in artificial intelligence for societal benefit. All events in the series are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Penn State students, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty with an interest in socially responsible AI applications are encouraged to attend.