Invited Talk

Machine Learning with Social Purpose

Shakir Mohamed

2023 Invited Talk

Abstract

This talk talk has a single objective: to advocate for machine learning infused with social purpose. Social purpose here is an invitation to deepen our inquiries as investigators and inventors into the relationships between machine learning, our planet, and each other. In this way, social purpose transforms our field of machine learning: into something that is both technical and social. And my belief is that machine learning with social purpose will provide the passion and momentum for the contributions that are needed in overcoming the myriad of global challenges and in achieving our global goals. To make this all concrete, the talk will have three parts: machine learning for the Earth systems, sociotechnical AI, and strengthening global communities. And we’ll cover topics on generative models; evaluations and experts; healthcare and climate; fairness, ethics and safety; and bias and global inclusion. By the end, I hope we’ll have set the scene for a rich discussion on our responsibility and agency as researchers, and new ways of driving machine learning with social purpose.

Speaker

Shakir Mohamed

Shakir Mohamed works on technical and sociotechnical questions in machine learning research, working on problems in machine learning principles, applied problems in healthcare and environment, and ethics and diversity. Shakir is a Director for Research at DeepMind in London, an Associate Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, and an Honorary Professor of University College London. Shakir is also a founder and trustee of the Deep Learning Indaba, a grassroots charity whose work is to build pan-African capacity and leadership in AI. Amongst other roles, Shakir served as the senior programme chair for ICLR 2021, and as the General Chair for NeurIPS 2022. Shakir also serves on the Board of Directors for some of the leading conferences in the field of machine learning and AI (ICML, ICLR, NeurIPS), is a member of the Royal Society diversity and inclusion committee, and on the international scientific advisory committee for the pan-Canadian AI strategy. Shakir is from South Africa, completed a postdoc at the University of British Columbia, received his PhD from the University of Cambridge, and received his masters and undergraduate degrees in Electrical and Information engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Video

Chat is not available.