Stacy Hobson

Bio: Dr. Stacy Hobson is a Research Scientist at IBM Research and is the Director of the Responsible and Inclusive Technologies research group. Her group’s research focuses on anticipating and understanding the impacts of technology on society and promoting tech practices that minimize harms, biases and other negative outcomes. Stacy’s research has spanned multiple areas including topics such as addressing social inequities through technology, AI transparency, and data sharing platforms for governmental crisis management. Stacy has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed publications and holds 15 US patents. Stacy earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from South Carolina State University, a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Duke University and a PhD in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Title: Addressing technology-mediated social harms

Abstract: Many technology efforts focus almost exclusively on the expected benefits that the resulting innovations may provide. Although there has been increased attention in past years on topics such as ethics, privacy, fairness and trust in AI, there still exists a wide gap between the aims of responsible innovation and what is occurring most often in practice. In this talk, I highlight the critical importance of proactively considering technology use in society, with focused attention on societal stakeholders, social impacts and socio-historical context, as the necessary foundation to anticipate and mitigate tech harms.