COVID-19 Issues and LGBTQ Folks in ML/AI
QinAI @ ICML 2020 Open Discussion
Stephen Molldrem; Mustafa I. Hussain; Olivia Guest; Luke Stark
We propose a discussion focused on the data ecology of the COVID-19 pandemic and LGBTQ+ technology workers’ experience of COVID-19, particularly as related to workplace issues, ethics, norms, and emergent uses of AI/ML for public health surveillance, contact tracing, research, and related areas.
We are four queer academics who crisscross science and technology studies, LGBTQ studies, policy studies, informatics, computational cognitive neuroscience, and related fields. We each study the social, ethical, historical, and/or political dimensions of digital technologies and scientific knowledge-making practices. This includes issues related to applications of AI/ML in research, policy, and open science practice.
Since late March 2020, we have been meeting weekly to discuss the COVID-19 data ecology and emergent issues related to technologies built for COVID-19 research, surveillance, and disease control. In these “COVID-19 Data Confabs,” we have developed a range of open-ended questions, concerns, areas of interest, and ideas that pertain to emergent uses of AI/ML for public health surveillance, contact tracing, research, and other issues in the context of the current pandemic.
We suggest a discussion about the following open questions (and others) in an interdisciplinary and low-stakes conversational style with queer and trans technologists in industry, academia, civil society, the public sector, and other areas. We especially invite LGBTQ folks whose work has been affected by COVID-19, people who are working on COVID-19-related projects, and those with an interest in the politics of health data and public health surveillance in the wake of COVID-19.
Some questions:
What are folks’ perspectives on how COVID-19 is (or is not) affecting their institution and/or their own professional role, as an LGBTQ+ person working in technology? This could be about workplace issues or COVID-19-related projects.
For those who have been involved in COVID-19 related technical projects, what has your experience been? Have new ethical issues, professional questions, or norms arisen?
Are queers in the tech sector concerned about new potential uses of ML/AI for COVID-19 surveillance and disease control and/or the pandemic’s long-term effects on the digital health ecosystem?
What perspectives can LGBTQ+ technology workers and data custodians who work on COVID-19-related projects bring to the conversation?