Mike Schroepfer, Chief Technology Officer at Facebook, says that hiring a crucial part of diversity in AI as well as preventing bias for teams creating products for people. However, Schroepfer cannot provide the number of Black people working at FAIR (Facebook AI Research) team. FAIR was created with Yann LeCun back in the year 2013, and it has locations in various regions including NY, Paris, and Silicon Valley. Facebook AI Research has become one of the most influential and significant artificial intelligence research organizations across the globe.
More than 100 employees work at FAIR, and a its spokesman stated that the company has reported employee diversity stats for 6 years. However, Facebook does not tally numbers by individual teams. Last year, Media houses asked Facebook about the number of Black people working at FAIR, but received no response from Facebook.
Evan Spiegel, Snap CEO also stated in an internal meeting, held last Friday, that he does not plan to supply diversity stats. Last week, Facebook CTO spoke publicly with artificial intelligence journalists for the first since protests erupted in over 2,000 cities in the United States. He stated that Facebook has been trying to improve diversity across its board. According to a 2019 analysis by Mutale Nkonde, co-author at Algorithm Accountability Act, FAIR had no Black employees.
Diversity efforts at tech giant companies such as Google and Facebook had made only small progress before the death of George Floyd. Recently, Mark Zuckerberg declined to remove Trump’s post that states, ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts.’ However, Twitter labeled a similar post, and a lot of Facebook employees threatened to resign, and some even staged a virtual walkout.
It has been reported that Facebook fired an engineer who participated in protests. Mark Luckie, a former Facebook employee, stated in Nov 2018 that the company is failing Black people working at Facebook and Black people using Facebook’s services. However, Schroepfer defended the company’s record on diversity by highlighting Facebook’s efforts to create the Society in Artificial Intelligence and Responsible Innovation labs during the last two years. A report on diversity at tech giant companies such as Google and Facebook was published last year by AI Now Institute. The report discovered that over 80% of computer academics teaching artificial intelligence are men, and only 15% of Facebook’s AI researchers are women. 10% of Google’s AI researchers are women, and the report claims that these companies do not make enough efforts to develop diverse teams.
Photo: Fb.
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More than 100 employees work at FAIR, and a its spokesman stated that the company has reported employee diversity stats for 6 years. However, Facebook does not tally numbers by individual teams. Last year, Media houses asked Facebook about the number of Black people working at FAIR, but received no response from Facebook.
Evan Spiegel, Snap CEO also stated in an internal meeting, held last Friday, that he does not plan to supply diversity stats. Last week, Facebook CTO spoke publicly with artificial intelligence journalists for the first since protests erupted in over 2,000 cities in the United States. He stated that Facebook has been trying to improve diversity across its board. According to a 2019 analysis by Mutale Nkonde, co-author at Algorithm Accountability Act, FAIR had no Black employees.
Diversity efforts at tech giant companies such as Google and Facebook had made only small progress before the death of George Floyd. Recently, Mark Zuckerberg declined to remove Trump’s post that states, ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts.’ However, Twitter labeled a similar post, and a lot of Facebook employees threatened to resign, and some even staged a virtual walkout.
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It has been reported that Facebook fired an engineer who participated in protests. Mark Luckie, a former Facebook employee, stated in Nov 2018 that the company is failing Black people working at Facebook and Black people using Facebook’s services. However, Schroepfer defended the company’s record on diversity by highlighting Facebook’s efforts to create the Society in Artificial Intelligence and Responsible Innovation labs during the last two years. A report on diversity at tech giant companies such as Google and Facebook was published last year by AI Now Institute. The report discovered that over 80% of computer academics teaching artificial intelligence are men, and only 15% of Facebook’s AI researchers are women. 10% of Google’s AI researchers are women, and the report claims that these companies do not make enough efforts to develop diverse teams.
Photo: Fb.
Read next: An insight into how ads work on Facebook
