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As a journalist covering AI, sometimes I write brief stories or breaking news, and sometimes I write things that require a little bit more oomph. Here’s a 
on the stories that required a bit of oomph. I see value in reflection after a year like 2020.
on the stories that required a bit of oomph. I see value in reflection after a year like 2020.
Last week I published a collection of books I read this year exploring topics like intersectional feminism, Black joy, and business strategy, geopolitics, and power in the age of AI: https://venturebeat.com/2020/12/24/an-ai-reporters-favorite-books-of-2020/
Authors include @sally_hubbard, @docdre, @kaliouby, @yardenkatz, @jennydeluxe, @museummammy, @jathansadowski, @marcoiansiti, @klakhani, @kanarinka, @laurenfklein, @darrwest, and John Allen.
In an attempt to define what’s at stake, I spoke to people knowledgeable about tech policy issues like privacy, surveillance, and facial recognition. Which political party controls the Senate depends on Senate elections being held in Georgia next week: https://venturebeat.com/2020/09/20/how-u-s-tech-policy-could-change-if-democrats-win-back-the-senate/
I also spoke with experts who have testified before Congress about antitrust actions to rein in the economic and political power of Big Tech companies like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google: https://venturebeat.com/2020/08/01/antitrust-experts-weigh-in-on-breaking-up-amazon-apple-facebook-and-google/
And I started 2020 by publishing a story about machine learning trends we expected to grow in impact in 2020: https://venturebeat.com/2020/01/02/top-minds-in-machine-learning-predict-where-ai-is-going-in-2020/
In robotics coverage, I took a close look at how advances in robotic grasping will reshape factories and Amazon fulfillment centers: https://venturebeat.com/2020/02/27/as-robotic-grasping-improves-rivals-debate-the-metrics-of-success/
In construction, I spoke with startups about the ways they’re trying to automate a range of tasks with AI for autonomous dozers, drones, and safety compliance: https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/23/robots-ai-and-the-road-to-a-fully-autonomous-construction-industry/
One simple robot that got my attention this year was Burro, which helped farm workers harvesting grapes do their jobs this spring: https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/24/autonomous-farm-robot-burro-assists-human-workers-with-grape-harvest/
Amid the early days of the pandemic, I spoke with the makers of contact tracing apps who are interested in preserving people’s privacy: https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/13/what-privacy-preserving-coronavirus-tracing-apps-need-to-succeed/
I also looked at how a missed opportunity to pass consumer privacy laws played a role in data collection practices during the pandemic: https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/18/how-congress-is-shaping-data-privacy-laws-during-the-pandemic/
A few days before the death of George Floyd, I wrote about numerous documented ties between white supremacist groups and some AI startups while others make steps toward reducing race and gender bias and putting ethics principles into practice: https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/20/a-fight-for-the-soul-of-machine-learning/
I wrote about the progress @VentureBeat needs to make toward creating a more diverse newsroom and why dismantling white supremacy is important for an industry that often treats white male as default: https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/05/ai-weekly-dismantle-white-supremacy-for-the-good-of-us-all/
I also asked Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer about bias and wrote about the fact that Facebook AI Research does not collect diversity data https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/15/facebook-cto-says-hiring-matters-for-mitigating-ai-bias-but-the-company-lacks-ai-research-diversity-stats/
I also wrote about a public disagreement between Timnit Gebru and Yann LeCun about AI bias that eventually drew an apology from Facebook VP of AI Jerome Pesenti. There were reports LeCun quit Twitter as a result of the episode. That never happened: https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/26/ai-weekly-a-deep-learning-pioneers-teachable-moment-on-ai-bias/
To tell another side of this story, I wrote about the growth of fledgling organizations like @BlackInRobotics and The Bean Path in Jackson, Mississippi: https://venturebeat.com/2020/09/19/black-tech-organizations-grow-amid-calls-for-racial-justice/
And I spoke with Dr. Fallon Wilson @SistahWilson about the need for a Black tech movement, a sentiment I first heard her share at the @AfroTech conference in Oakland in 2019: https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/14/what-a-black-tech-movement-might-look-like/
This is the fifth year that I’ve written an Independence Day story about how AI can empower people and strengthen self governance: https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/04/how-ai-can-empower-communities-and-strengthen-democracy/
I really enjoyed talking with Niloufar Salehi about applying restorative justice principles to address harm people suffer in social media and why she will not initially consider solutions that incorporate machine learning: https://venturebeat.com/2020/08/12/uc-berkeleys-niloufar-salehi-on-restorative-justice-in-social-media/
In this piece, I took a look at Kamala Harris’ history with companies like Facebook, Google, and Uber. I first met Harris in 2004 at a black journalists meeting when I was a freshman in college. Pretty amazing to think she’s now VP-elect: https://venturebeat.com/2020/08/16/key-moments-in-kamala-harris-history-with-silicon-valley/
This is a story about ASAPS, a dataset created by a federal government agency in part with staged actors to make AI that detects emergencies. Such systems could also perpetuate racism or power a surveillance state: https://venturebeat.com/2020/08/27/the-utopian-promise-and-dystopian-potential-of-real-time-detection-of-police-fire-and-medical-emergencies/
In this piece, I considered what it would take to build Wakanda, and surveyed the recent work of AI researchers of African descent on issues like anticolonial AI and addressing anti-Blackness in the AI community: https://venturebeat.com/2020/09/07/building-wakanda/
I spoke with Kiana Caton about why facial recognition in remote testing software meant she had to shine a light in her face throughout the exam. This story was cited by ACLU branches of California in an Oct. 1 letter to the CA Supreme Court: https://venturebeat.com/2020/09/29/examsofts-remote-bar-exam-sparks-privacy-and-facial-recognition-concerns/
Whereas President Trump signed an executive order attacking diversity training and critical race theory, the Ethical AI team at Google uses critical race theory in considerations of algorithmic fairness and racial categorization: https://venturebeat.com/2020/10/29/trump-faces-executive-order-lawsuit-as-critical-race-theory-fuels-ai-research/
Last week, a federal judge blocked the anti-race theory executive order. But last month, Stanford University had already rushed to implement the executive order: https://venturebeat.com/2020/11/17/stanford-rushes-to-comply-with-trump-executive-order-limiting-diversity-training/
Ahead of Election Day, I took a look at how Prop 25 and the evolution of attitudes about risk assessment algorithms. The ballot proposition that would have required California counties to replace cash bail with algorithms was rejected by voters: https://venturebeat.com/2020/11/03/the-unavoidable-glaring-cproblem-with-californias-prop-25-to-replace-cash-bail-with-an-algorithm/
To end the year, earlier this month I spoke with @TimnitGebru after Google fired her. There’s a lot to unpack here about the experiences of Black women in tech, ethics washing, and independent research, but she also has advice for young women and POC: https://venturebeat.com/2020/12/10/timnit-gebru-googles-dehumanizing-memo-paints-me-as-an-angry-black-woman/
To assess the policy implications of Google firing Gebru, I interviewed @ruchowdh, @CjColclough, @UpFromTheCracks, @sonia__katyal, @IfeomaOzoma, and @JasmineMcNealy to get to the heart of the matter: https://venturebeat.com/2020/12/16/from-whistleblower-laws-to-unions-how-googles-ai-ethics-meltdown-could-shape-policy/
Finally, if you’re looking for a story to put the year into context, there’s this review of surveys and analysis of two State of AI reports: https://venturebeat.com/2020/11/27/ai-weekly-the-state-of-machine-learning-in-2020/
There’s also the final AI Weekly of 2020: https://venturebeat.com/2020/12/28/ai-weekly-the-trends-that-shaped-2020/
Thanks for reading! Know something I should be writing about? Feel free to DM me or email [email protected]
