Google fired its star AI researcher one year ago. Now she’s launching her own institute

 In brief: 

Exactly one year after Timnit Gebru was dismissed from her post at Google, the prominent expert in artificial intelligence announced plans for a new AI research institute, designed to be an independent group committed to diverse points of view and preventing harm. Gebru has lined up funding from the Ford, MacArthur, Kapor Center, Rockefeller, and Open Society foundations for the center — called DAIR, or Distributed AI Research — and plans to hire five researchers over the next year. The group's first research fellow, Raesetje Sefala, is based in South Africa and studies how computer vision algorithms and satellite images can be used to track the legacy of spatial apartheid — the segregation of minority groups in certain areas. Gebru also wants her group to serve as a resource to advise other organizations on AI programs and she'd like to set up a fellowship for people who are affected by AI.

Why this is important:

 Gebru's effort is an attempt to forge a research group outside of corporate or military influence that tries to prevent harm from AI systems by focusing on global perspectives and underrepresented groups. As the development of AI systems has boomed, the field has become dominated by large companies with access to the vast amounts of data and computing power used to build algorithms. Gebru, and other researchers and argue, argue that the trend is making the area less accessible, especially to groups at risk of being hurt by AI.