Alternative Nobel Prize: Fighter for better technology

Yes, it is possible: you can take artificial intelligence equally seriously without exaggerating its capabilities - and still point out dangers and deficits. Computer scientist Timnit Gebru shows how. She became known in 2020 when Google terminated her as co-head of the “Ethical AI” team - although Google explained at the time that Gebru had resigned herself - and more than a thousand employees then accused the company of discrimination and demanded clarification.

But even before her time at Google, Gebru was an important and relevant voice in AI research: In a study, she showed that AI facial recognition has significantly higher error rates for women of color than for white men. Gebru is also co-founder of the NGO “Black in AI,” which advocates for better representation of people of color in the AI ​​sector and its political regulation.

“We are breaking through the AI ​​hype,” that is the motto of Gebru’s Dair research institute, which she founded four years ago and of which she is the head. Dair does not want to abolish AI or condemn the technology, but rather create a constructive alternative to the centralized and profit-driven structure and work of tech companies. The key to this is to bring people together and give them a voice who do not or only marginally appear in corporate thinking.

The Right Livelihood Foundation recognized her work as follows: “Because it challenges the existing concentration of power in the field of artificial intelligence and advances a digital technology based on justice, lived experience and human self-determination.” Gebru's research helped direct the international debate about AI to key questions such as purpose, responsibility and regulation.