Activists Of Tech — The responsible tech podcast
Activists of Tech
Publishing Details
About This Podcast
Shifting the narrative from Big Tech to Responsible Tech by sharing & archiving the work of change makers.
At the intersection of technology and social justice, Activists Of Tech is a seasonal weekly podcast dedicated to the amplification and archival of minority voices among activists, thought leaders, academics, and practitioners of responsible tech. Shifting the narrative from Big Tech to responsible tech takes honesty: this is a "say it as it is" type of podcast, and no topic is too taboo not to be named and addressed.
The topics covered encompass a variety of responsible tech areas and focus on social justice, AI harm, AI bias, AI regulation and advocacy, minorities in tech, gender equality, tech and democracy, social media, and algorithmic recommendations, to name a few. We also talk about solutions and how to make tech inclusive and beneficial for all.
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Recent Episodes
S4E3 Democratic governance of technology: myth or reality ? With Dr Mar Hicks from the University of Virginia School of Data Science
Welcome back to the last episode of this special series exploring the relationship between power and technology! We now know that power and technology are intertwined and led to the rise of…
S4E2 The TESCREAL to fascism pipeline with Adrienne Williams from the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR)
Reading about TESCREAL feels like reading a bad sci-fi storyline written by a man with a god complex. Unfortunately, it’s real: a movement that allows its proponents to use the threat of human…
S4E1 Back to basics: Technofascism 101 with Emile Dirks from the Citizen Lab
After Trump was elected and tech oligarchs like Elon Musk, an unelected person, started to get power in decision making at the White House, the topic of technofascism got very popular. But this…
S3E17 The datafication of refugees: humanitarian agencies & biometrics with Zara Rahman from the Superrr Lab
Biometrics – our fingerprints, faces, irises, for instance – are increasingly used to verify identity. But what happens when this data collection is applied to vulnerable populations, like refugees…
S3E16 Mapping for justice: from cartography to GIS, with Cathy Richards from the Open Environmental Data Project
If cartography, the ancestor of GIS, already displayed colonial patterns and racist stereotypes back in the day, why would the digital legacy of maps be any different? Maps have an authoritative…
S3E15 How MyBranz fights fake online reviews to save the planet — and your wallet with Janani Kumar, Founder of MyBranz
A few months ago, in August 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials, a rule that will allow to deter AI-generated fake reviews by…
S3E14 Quit Clicking Kids: protecting child influencers through policy with Chris McCarty, founder of Quit Clicking Kids
Since #KOSA, protecting kids online has continued to be a very hot topic. However, we often overlook the influence industry that also impacts kids online, for instance with the emergence of thousands…
S3E13 How existing safety mitigation safeguards fail in LLMs with Khaoula Chehbouni, PhD Researcher at McGill and MILA
Large Language Models, or LLMs, may be the most popular type of AI systems, often seen as an alternative to search engines, even though they should not as the information they throw at users only…
S3E12 Privacy under attack: how the Tor Project fights digital surveillance, with Raya S. & Pavel Zoneff
We’re all very used to being surveilled by now, especially through surveillance capitalism, or the commodification of our personal data - our age, location, mental state, shopping habits, tax…
S3E11 Queer Arab History, social media, and representation with Marwan Kaabour from Takweer
Queer Arabs are often portrayed as either hated by their own Arab community or as Western imports as if Queerness came along with colonialism. And online, queer voices are mostly from western…
S3E10 History of tech, power relations, & archiving for social justice with Dr Jeffrey Yost from the Charles Babbage Institute
Technology narratives are set in the present, and all of their promises set in the near future. We’ve heard about flying cars, automated jobs, robots able to annihilate Humanity, robots able to save…
S3E9 Rethinking AI through Indigenous culture with Dane Malenfant from McGill University & MILA
An interesting thing about AI systems is that without a deliberately designed structure to promote the concept of sharing, AI systems will focus solely on maximizing their individual rewards, even if…
S3E8 Online education, AI Ethics, & a vision for global learning with Kadian Davis-Owusu from TeachSomebody
More often than not, on Activists of Tech, we talk about the problems caused by technology and the solutions or alternatives to these issues. And I kind of feel guilty because I don’t want to convey…
S3E7 Hope & imagining a better world with B Cavello from the Aspen Institute
This episode was initially scheduled to be released in mid-December, but it was actually recorded last week, specifically one day after the American elections took place and after Trump was…
S3E6 Expanding access to art using technology with Colin Clark
Culture, the arts, or what makes humans.. Humans. Yet it is not accessible to just everyone. When you think about it, how do you make a play accessible to visually or hearing impaired people? How can…
S3E5 No voice unheard: Making digital archives inclusive with Valerie Love from the National Library of New Zealand
We produce a LOT of data, tweet for any reason, post a gazillion pictures online, and that somehow will give an idea to future generations about who we are and where we are at culturally speaking. Of…
S3E4 Leveraging AI for Justice in Nigeria and beyond with Nelson Olanipekun from Citizens' Gavel
Facing an injustice and requiring legal representation is a tedious, complex, and time-consuming process, on top of being expensive and not affordable by everyone who needs help. This hurdle greatly…
S3E3 Surveillance in the Bay Area and beyond with Nidhi Sinha
Growing up in the Bay area with a future drawn for her, Nidhi Sinha did everything she was supposed to do: go to a private high school, pursue a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, and work…
S3E2 AI powered K-12 education fiasco with Shana V. White from the Kapor Center
AI products and features are becoming ubiquitous. When the targets of AI systems are children in school, it should be common sense that the impacts of these technologies should be assessed before…
S3E1 How to fix the patriartech with Mia Shah-Dand, founder of Women in AI ethics
Sexism and oppression are tied to culture, which in turn impacts the tech industry, tech design and deployment. To talk about the relationship between the patriarchy, women in tech, and how to fight…
Frequently Asked Questions
Activists Of Tech — The responsible tech podcast has published 36 episodes since November 2023, covering topics in Science, Social Sciences.
Activists Of Tech — The responsible tech podcast is currently dormant with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 37m.
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