Global Diversity Awareness Panel 2024

"A Global Perspective on Contemporary AI"

Recent advancements in AI have introduced many to its immense potential and functionality. However, how are AI technologies impacting different communities around the world? Alain Tchana from the Grenoble INP, Kalika Bali from Microsoft Research India, Nadia Rodríguez Rodríguez from the University of Lima, and Aboubakar Mountapmbeme from the University of North Texas explored the crucial need to involve the global community in AI development and the inclusion of underrepresented cultures in its coding to make AI accessible to all.  

 

 

Moderator 

Alain Tchana received the PhD degree in computer science in 2011, from the LIG laboratory, Institute National Polytechnique de Toulouse, France. He has published more than sixty research articles in international peer reviewed journals and prestigious conferences. His main research interests include operating systems, cloud computing, and virtualization. Since September 2022, he has been a Professor at Grenoble INP in France.

 

 

 

 

Panelists

Kalika Bali a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research Labs India. Her work in speech and language technologies focuses on the use of language models for building technology that not only offers more natural human-computer interactions but includes a diversity of languages and user demographics. She has been working on technology for low-resource languages and other marginalized communities as a part of her work over two decades in Speech and Natural Language Processing and believes that local language technology especially with speech interfaces, can help millions of people enter a world that is till now almost inaccessible to them. The recent game-changing advent of Foundational Models, like GPT, Bard etc has her exploring how these models can both be beneficial and detrimental to society. Her recent work lies at the intersection of multilingual AI and gender. In recognition of her contributions, Kalika Bali was named in the inaugural TIME100 AI list, which honours the 100 most influential people in AI. She was recognized for her work in breaking language barriers in technology and championing inclusivity in the AI revolution.

Aboubakar Mountapmbeme obtained his PhD in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of North Texas in December 2022. His dissertation focused on understanding and addressing accessibility barriers faced by people with visual impairments on block-based programming environments. His research interest lies in the areas of Human-Computer Interaction, Accessibility, Software Engineering and Machine Learning, broadly constructed. After graduating in 2022, he joined Amazon as a Software Engineer.

 

 

 

 

Nadia Rodriguez is a distinguished scholar with a PhD in Strategic Management from the Consortium of Universities of Peru. She holds an MBA from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX, along with a bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Lima, Peru. Her research focuses on the careers of Peruvian women in the field of information technology. She was recently appointed as the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Lima, following her tenure as the Director of the Systems Engineering Undergraduate Program at Universidad de Lima since 2015.