A Manyfesto for Decolonizing AI
Sabelo Mhlambi
Stanford’s Digital Civil Society Lab
Abstract:
"Decolonizing AI" is both a critique and an emerging movement both in the West and Non-Western world amongst AI researchers, activists, and practitioners. While its proponents have identified parallels between historical colonialism and the colonial-like scale and extractive nature of AI-related technologies developed by big tech companies, can a decolonial framing address broader socio-economic about power and agency within the creation and use of AI? This talk will explore the varying views on "decolonizing" AI and will build upon work from the "AI Decolonial Manyfesto" collaborative effort (https://manyfesto.ai).
Bio:
Sabelo is a computer scientist and researcher whose work focuses on the ethical implications of technology in the developing world, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, along with the creation of tools to make Artificial Intelligence more accessible and inclusive to underrepresented communities.
He is a Practitioner Fellow at Stanford's Digital Civil Society Lab and a Fellow at Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard. His research centers on examining the risks and opportunities of AI in the developing world, and in the use of indigenous ethical models as a framework for creating a more humane and equitable internet. His current technical projects include the creation of Natural Language Processing models for African languages, an alternative design of web platforms for decentralizing data, and an open-source library for offline networks.
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