About the Talk

 

Join our Founder & CEO Shilpi Agarwal for her Talk on DataEthics4All’s Impact in Numbers for AI DIET World, Day 1 in which she discusses our Mission, the 1000+ strong community membership from over 54 countries, as well as the Data Ethics Advisory Council, the World’s 1st independent Advisory Council on Data Ethics, our Data Ethics Leadership Council and AI Youth Council, the first-ever Youth Council to inspire our next generation on the Ethical Use of AI and who founded the FREE STEM Youth Tutoring Club. Join this talk to learn this and much more about the Impact our Programs are having in Numbers!

 

Transcript

 

0:18 Shilpi Agarwal:  Hello, and welcome everyone. I wanted to give you a brief description and story about DataEthics4All itself. So as you know, my name is Shilpi Agarwal, and I’m the founder of DataEthics4All, and I want to tell you a story about the impact of DataEthics4All in numbers. 

 

0:34 Shilpi:  So I started DataEthics4All in January of 2020, with a mission of raising awareness on the ethical use of data and AI, building the next generation of ethics 1st leaders and tackling diversity in tech through a grassroots approach. In less than two years, what started as a humble initiative has turned into a movement, all with your help and support – and I really thank you all for that. 

 

1:12 Shilpi:  We started the DataEthics4All initiative as a community, the first programme that we started was a community, a place for like minded people to come together and discuss the black, white, grey, and still very nascent and issues of ethics when it comes to data science and artificial intelligence. The ground rules haven’t been put down yet, so it was and it is still very new in terms of what the community believes is the right thing to do when it comes to ethics in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. So the community was a way for us to have an open discussion about some of these very difficult topics, publicly and privately, some of the things that we are not able to bring up within the company, or if we want to learn more, because we are grounded in our ethics. 

 

2:08 Shilpi:  We want to learn more, we want to do the right thing, but we don’t know what the right thing is yet, or what  society believes the right thing is. So this whole forum was started to have an open dialogue for such topics. In less than two years, we have grown to 1000 Plus members in our community – which may seem like not like a million people, it may seem like a small number, but if you look at it, if you look at the stats of who these people are in the community, and what the community looks like, it really is a very, very, very impressive number. 

2:51 Shilpi:  Our community members are from ages 11 to 18 years old – so unlike any other forums, organizations, or industry associations, we welcome a dialogue between age groups, because we feel that our youth, the next generation of leaders, have so much wisdom to share when it comes to data privacy. 

 

3:16 Shilpi:  They are on social media, they may not know about privacy, but they definitely know about what affects them and how they experience disinformation, or polarization, or this constant validation that kids today are looking for on social media, from their friends and their immediate fans. 

 

3:37 Shilpi:  All of that is important for us, the younger and the older audiences talking about and seeing how we can make changes and improve the situation for tomorrow.

 

So what is really impressive is that our audience ranges from 11 years old to 80 years old. 

 

 

3:56 Shilpi:  We also have member representation from 54 countries. Now, I don’t know if this number looks that impressive to you, but I had to look it up, and Google told me that there are a total of 197 countries in the world. 

 

4:11 Shilpi:  So out of the 195/197 countries, we have representation for almost 25% of the countries of the world – I think that’s very impressive, and I love that we have representation from so many different parts of the globe. 

 

4:41 Shilpi:  So today, DataEthics4All is not only known for its community, but also for its many, many programmes. Along the way we have achieved many firsts, and I want to tell you a little bit about what those firsts are.

 

4:58 Shilpi:  DataEthics4All has the first independent – which means they don’t have any fiduciary responsibility – advisory council on data ethics to create awareness on the ethical use of the NI data pipeline.

 

5:13 Shilpi:  So as you know, if you Google it, you’ll see that there isn’t any other council like this with a mission for data ethics and artificial intelligence that doesn’t have a fiduciary responsibility. Most of the ethics councils are both set within the companies, within the organizations, and they are part of their own organization. 

 

Our Ethics Advisory Council is an independent board with 13 CXOs from various different disciplines – from for profit companies, to non-profit companies, to fortune 500 even. 

 

5:56 Shilpi:  Next, we have the DataEthics4all Leadership Council which, again, has members from across the globe. We have someone from London, Susanna, Bruce, and myself from the California Bay Area, we have Kevin from Canada, and we have Sam from London, Oxford, England. So we have a small but really mighty team. 

 

6:22 Shilpi:  Our leadership council is the backbone of our organization and it’s the brain of all the programmes. I invite you all to join us because as you will see, some of the stories and videos that we have posted, the rashes and things, the fun that we have together while getting some work done – so our motto has always been work hard and play hard, and I invite you all to join because we are a fun group of people to be with. 

6:50 Shilpi:  We have the DataEthics4All AI Youth Council, which is the first ever Youth Council to inspire our next generation on the ethical use of artificial intelligence. 

 

 

7:02 Shilpi:  They started a free stem youth tutoring club that is so unique in so many different ways. And I’m going to tell you more about that tomorrow. It’s a 10 pillar programme -and this is a running joke in our leadership council; DataEthics4All always has pillars, we have pillars of our framework, we have 12 pillars in our framework, we have 10 pillars in our free stem programme. So we are bringing pillars that are the strongest part of the foundation. So we are bringing the foundation, we are bringing the pillars, and we are inviting all of you to join us to help us build the building. 

 

7:45 Shilpi:  Our think tank members of the EIU Council are really active in town hall discussions. They are active Think Tank members, they participate in Summits, they have participated in hackathons, they have taught workshops, they have designed courses for youth by youth on the introduction of data, artificial intelligence and ethics. This is available in the Data Ethics Institute for a certificate for free that kids can put on their college applications, so we are really proud of our youth council. 

 

 

8:28 Shilpi:  I mentioned that our Data Ethics Institute not only hosts the three courses that our youth conference designed, but it also hosts 16 other courses and a lot more are on the way. 

 

 

8:41 Shilpi:  With 484 students registered, we have some very unique courses, such as AI ethics and predictive policing, using data visualization to counter bias – some of these very unique programmes and courses that are not available on any other of the learning platforms. today. 

9:04 Shilpi:  We introduced the AI diet magazine, and you know what DIET stands for, we are all about the DIET acronym, our AI DIET World, our AI DIET magazine, our 100 DIET champions, all stemmed from that one acronym called ‘DIET’ – which is data diversity, inclusion, impact ethics, equity, teams and technology. So this is the first magazine designed not just to inform readers on the AI and ML of the data science landscape, but to provide a holistic view from the topic of the cognitive lens of AI.

 

9:44 Shilpi:  Like I mentioned, we published the first 100 list of DIET champions, which unlike any other list out there, is to honor trailblazers in the fields of data, diversity inclusion, impact ethics, equity, teams and technology. 

 

 

10:04 Shilpi:  These are trailblazers and champions leading the forefront within the company and outside the company. So this is not a list based on gender, or based on age, or based on industry, this runs across industry, across geographical regions, across industries – it is a one of a kind list that we are very proud to have put together.  Hopefully we’ll continue doing that year after year, we may revisit the 100 DIET champions to call it the 100 AI champions, but it is something that we are really proud of, and today, the first day of our AI DIET World, is also to celebrate the AI DIET champions.

 

10:50 Shilpi:  The DataEthics4All also launched an AI society, which is the first directory that would give customers a choice of rating AI solutions. 

 

 

10:59 Shilpi:  We do this not just by price, ease of use, features and customer service, which are very much needed, but there are a lot of other platforms out there that do a great job with that. So our hope is to be able to go a step further and provide AI solutions, have customers rate AI solutions for ethics, trust, transparency, and privacy as well. Today, our AI society has 100 listed products, and it’s now open for customer reviews. 

 

11:36 Shilpi:  So I really encourage you all and I invite you to please take a look at our AI society, because that is what our hope is – to provide a holistic view on the AI solutions that are out there today. Whether you’re thinking of implementing any AI solution’s in your company, our hope is that you will be able to look at the reviews from a trust, privacy and data centric point of view and make the right choice. 

 

12:06 Shilpi:  To all the customers who have used these products, we would love to invite you to rate and review them based on how you think they are handling your data, and whether they have your trust because,  as Christina Montgomery said in the first keynote talk today, trust is everything. We may not have quantitative data on what to do, but trust will tell you everything if your customers are using your product and they trust you, then that is the only metric you need, it’s a great metric. So let’s let’s use that metric and see if our customers trust us, and use us, and like us.

12:50 Shilpi:  So DataEthics4All also made a pledge last thanksgiving after our AI Youth Council started the free stamp club, we realized that there is a large population of students that are being left behind because they don’t have the resources – yes there is homework help at school, and there is homework centers after school, but there’s still a lot that needs to be done. 

 

13:25 Shilpi:  So we made a pledge – a 5 million, 5 year pledge to help 5 million economically disadvantaged students. 

 

13:33 Shilpi:  Not just to help them with FaceTime tutoring, which is where we started, but we expanded the programme by providing leadership opportunities to these students, as well as career guidance and mentoring, career technical education, essay reviews, as well as help with their college applications. Today, we are working with over 30 tutors and volunteers for over 30 schools, and we are constantly reaching out to new superintendents and middle school and high school administrators,  because this programme is for students from sixth grade to twelfth grade.

 

So if you know of school administrators, or if you can connect us to our parents who can connect us to students in your life who would love to get mentored and have career advice, please reach out to us and we would love to help.

 

 

14:31 Shilpi:  To take the mission of the 5 million 5 year pledge forward, we partnered with the Oxford University’s internship office where we have worked with them and provided over 18 Oxford’s scholars with real life summer internship opportunities this summer, and there are some really great reviews and stories and in our AI DIET magazine, which is now a blog on our website. So please take a look at what our interns have spoken about, what was their experience in working with us, and the skills that they learned. 

 

14:38 Shilpi:  We are also  expanding this internship opportunity to all colleges worldwide and all high schoolers worldwide. So sometimes it’s very difficult for under 16’s to really get summer internship opportunities that are in technology and business. So if you’re interested, please reach out to us. 

 

15:42 Shilpi:  We are also doing a mentors drive for our high schoolers with the colleges, because we want a tutors and mentors drive to have project lead mentors for our high schoolers. So if you are interested in joining us in this effort, again, please reach out to one of us in our leadership team to talk more in detail.

 

 

16:07 Shilpi:  We have also partnered with the University of North Texas to bring a series of talks. The first talk we did was ‘My life as a linguist’, the curator of Smithsonian, Mary, has landed a wonderful job – and these are the kinds of things we are doing to introduce the youth of the next generation to encourage them and make them aware of the linear as well as the non-linear STEM careers that are available today. 

 

 

16:37 Shilpi:  We have hosted over 51 events, all the way from town halls, to Netflix parties, to a summit, and hackathon boot camp. We have done great talks, we have hosted our first volunteer appreciation award in Gala, we’ve done master boot camps, how to build and administer a chat box by our very own Sam, we have done exclusive mixers for youth as well as adults. So we have come a long way. 

 

 

17:14 Shilpi:  Nine of our volunteers were recommended for the Presidential Volunteer Service Award and they have earned it, which is one of the highest awards in the country that you can earn for community service, and let me tell you, the number of hours required to earn the Presidential Volunteer Service Award is a big number. We have over 89 volunteers and I’m really proud of our Volunteer Task Force, and exceptionally proud of the few that went an extra mile to earn the Presidential Volunteer Service Award. 

 

 

17:59 Shilpi:  With that, we feel like in less than two years, we have rolled out so many new programmes, the media is talking about us, we would like the media to talk about us more, but at least I think we have some traction. We feel that our work has just begun, and that’s why the Leadership Team at DataEthics4all felt that we need a new name, a new company by the name of DataEthics4All that can take the mission and the vision of this initiative forward to the next level. With that, I’m super thrilled to announce that just last week we filed for a Delaware public corporation. And we are now called the DateEthics4All Foundation. 

 

 

18:51 Shilpi:  We really hope and invite you to help make this vision a reality, and help us tackle diversity in tech through a grassroots approach.