2023 Responsible Tech Mixer Speaker Series
All Tech Is Human’s 2023 Responsible Tech Mixer Speaker Series brings together more than 200 people every month at Betaworks in New York City to highlight a global community of people working to co-create a better tech future. To date, every gathering has reached venue capacity and more than 1,600 unique people have registered to attend.
March 2023: More Than A Glitch Book Celebration with Meredith Broussard
All Tech is Human was honored to launch its 2023 Responsible Tech Mixer Speaker Series with NYU Associate Professor Meredith Broussard to celebrate and discuss the launch of her new book, More Than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech, at Betaworks in New York City on Wednesday, March 15, 2023.
Broussard sat down with All Tech Is Human Founder & Director David Ryan Polgar for a discussion about the story behind More Than a Glitch, how inequities in tech development perpetuate inequities in our world, and the unequal distribution of power in tech development – and how people can feel empowered by technology.
April 2023: I Will Not Be Autotuned Talk with Douglas Rushkoff
All Tech is Human was honored to continue its 2023 Responsible Tech Mixer Speaker Series with author of Survival of the Richest Douglas Rushkoff at Betaworks in New York City on Wednesday, April 26, 2023.
In a wide-ranging talk, Rushkoff discusses why he believes a technosolutionist mindset obscures the qualities that make us most human – and why he refuses to be autotuned. Further, he looks at the rise of artificial intelligence through a humanist lens. How can we maximize the qualities that make us most human in a time of rapid technological development? Ultimately, Rushkoff reveals why all tech truly is human.
May 2023: How Do Biases in Algorithms Result in Harms to Communities of Color? Panel Discussion with Nabiha Syed, Lili Gangas, and Crystal Grant
Following a special screening of Consumer Reports’ Bad Input, the evening’s panel discussion explored how biases in algorithms and datasets result in harms to communities of color.
About the panelists
Nabiha Syed is the chief executive officer of The Markup. She oversees The Markup’s strategy, growth plans and business operations. Nabiha also oversees legal, communications, personnel and other operational matters.
Crystal Grant is a Technology Fellow with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. Dr. Grant is a graduate of Emory University’s Laney Graduate School where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.
Lili Gangas is the Chief Technology Community Officer at the Kapor Center working to create new and more inclusive tech innovation ecosystems regionally & nationally.
Moderated by: Brian Vines is a Chicagoan by birth and a New Yorker by choice. After completing the Masters Program in Broadcast Journalism at Boston University’s College of Communication he worked with such outlets as CNN, NYC-TV, Brooklyn Independent Media, the internationally syndicated VJIAM show, and BroadBand Network3.
June 2023: Celebration of Atlantic Council’s Task Force for a Trustworthy Future Web w/ Yoel Roth, Maya Wiley, Mike Masnick, and Kat Duffy
All Tech Is Human celebrated the release of Atlantic Council's DFR Lab's Task Force For a Trustworthy Future Web with a panel discussion featuring Yoel Roth, Maya Wiley, MIke Masnick, and Kat Duffy on Monday, June 26, at Betaworks in New York City as part of its ongoing Responsible Tech Mixer Speaker Series.
The internet is changing. Legacy media platforms are fracturing as the economic environment has led to layoffs. Audience preferences about where they spend time and how they interact are changing. In the face of an uncertain internet future, Atlantic Council’s Task Force For a Trustworthy Future Web provides comprehensive research about the ways we can co-create a healthier internet. This panel discussion convenes key leaders and report contributors to ask: How can we chart a roadmap for future online ecosystems to protect users’ rights, support innovation, and center trust and safety principles?
“One of the things that we focus on in this Task Force report is that we have to assume that what happens offline will happen online, period. It is how things are and online spaces are not built to accommodate that. The choices that you make in building technologies, when you do not consider the inequities in the society in which that technology is being deployed, you are choosing to scale malignancy.” Kat Duffy said.
The report and panel provide a comprehensive overview about the existing internet ecosystem alongside key insights and recommendations for a large group of stakeholders about how to build a more safe, inclusive, and trustworthy internet.
“Every recommendation is a Civil Rights recommendation,” Maya Wiley said. “So I hope when you read the report…look at it with that lens and say, why did Maya say that?”
About the panelists
Maya Wiley
Maya Wiley is a nationally respected civil rights attorney and activist who has dedicated her life to the fights for justice, equality, and fairness.
Wiley’s father was a leader in the civil rights and economic justice movements, and she has been a leader inside and outside government. Serving as the first Black woman counsel to the mayor of New York City, she helped deliver on civil and immigrant rights. During her tenure, the city also saw an expansion of minority/women-owned business enterprises contracts. Following her time at City Hall, Wiley moved to academia as a faculty member and senior vice president for social justice at the New School University. While there, she chaired the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB). As chair, she led the release of the “hold” on proceedings against Daniel Pantaleo whose illegal chokehold killed Eric Garner. That move led to the CCRB’s successful administrative prosecution of Pantaleo that resulted in his firing. Wiley’s tenure at the CCRB was marked by increased case closure rates, increased transparency, and an intense focus on public outreach so that potential victims of police abuse were aware of ways to seek the board’s assistance. In 2021, Wiley was a candidate for New York City mayor.
Yoel Roth
Yoel Roth is currently a Technology Policy Fellow at UC Berkeley, and a Nonresident Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Roth's research is focused on how to address collective security challenges on distributed and decentralized social media platforms. He's also working on a book project about the field of trust and safety, and how technology companies navigate complex policy and governance challenges.
At Twitter, Roth was the Head of Trust & Safety, leading Twitter’s content moderation, integrity, and platform security efforts — including policy development, threat investigation, product, design, research, and operations.
Before joining Twitter, Roth received his PhD from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Roth's research and teaching examined the technical, policy, business, and cultural dynamics of social networking and dating apps at the dawn of the “App Store” age.
Mike Masnick
Mike Masnick is the founder and CEO of Floor64 and editor of the Techdirt blog.
Kat Duffy
Kat Duffy is a visiting senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab the Director of the Task Force for a Trustworthy Future Web. She advises companies, governments, and international nongovernmental organizations on building socially responsible business practices within the technology sector, developing strategies to align emerging technologies with democratic norms and human rights, and implementing best practices for civil-society engagement in the tech and human-rights space.
July 2023: How to Build a Career in Responsible Tech? Featuring Danielle Sutton, Ginny Fahs, Kristina Francis, and Flynn Coleman
The Responsible Tech Mixer: Summer Celebration was the fifth gathering in All Tech Is Human’s 2023 Responsible Tech Mixer Speaker Series at Betaworks in New York City. The gathering focused on career pathways and empowerment in Responsible Tech. It featured a panel discussion featuring international human rights attorney Flynn Coleman, Director, Product R&D at Consumer Reports Ginny Fahs, Deloitte Senior Consultant and Trustworthy AI Strategist Danielle Sutton, JFF Executive Director Kristina Francis, and was moderated by All Tech Is Human Associate Director Rebekah Tweed.
The Responsible Tech Movement is built on a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines. JFF Executive Director Kristina Francis spoke to how this is aligned with her career mission.
“I tell people a lot of times at my mission in life is to make sure that people can live in their genius. I say it all the time, and so I said that even before I went to JFF. And when we talk about walking through the door and allowing life to kind of bring you to the area that allows you to live your mission. That's what JFF allows me to do. And for me it is making sure that everyone in this room, all the people in different communities, those who are suffering, that we can come together as a people, as a community, as a humanity, and make sure that people can live in the way that gives them dignity and allows them to give the gifts and talents to the world.”
A wide range of backgrounds and perspective empowers the Responsible Tech Movement. From consideration to implementation, the vision for a responsible tech future is contributing to a broad ecosystem of individuals working to co-create a better future. International human rights attorney Flynn Coleman highlighted the importance of contributing to the collective.
“A lot is this idea that ultimately we can't take any of what we do just for ourselves with us, right? What we do for ourselves dies with us…We live very much in an individualist culture. And that can bring incredible innovation and incredible independence. But thinking about this collective community, legacy I think is incredibly important. And it also takes the pressure off having to do all of these things for ourselves because what we do for ourselves dies with us. What, what could we give away? What could we take and then bring back to our communities?”
The panel features key insights about career journeys, the types of impact each career path can enable, and tips for people hoping to enter the field or transition to a new role.
About the panelists
Danielle Sutton is a Senior Consultant at Deloitte and Trustworthy AI Strategist. Danielle Sutton is a 5th generation Harlemite who is currently a Senior Consultant at Deloitte in their Government and Public Services Strategy & Analytics Practice. She has been with the firm for 4 years, focusing her work on the intersection of Trustworthy AI and criminal justice.
Kristina F. is the executive director of JFFLabs. In this role, she oversees advisory, acceleration, data, and investing initiatives that connect traditional systems with systems disruptors to enable equitable economic mobility. Kristina has more than 20 years of experience in corporate operations and entrepreneurial ventures focused on management consulting, business development, software and data integration, and impact investing competencies.
Ginny Fahs is the Director, Product R&D - Innovation Lab at Consumer Reports. Prior to joining Consumer Reports, Ginny was a software engineer at Uber and a Technology Policy Fellow at the Aspen Institute. At Aspen, she focused on cybersecurity for the elderly and contributed research and design prototypes that are currently being adopted by U.S. government agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Trade Commission, and Department of Homeland Security. She also co-founded #MovingForward, a nonprofit social enterprise that fights harassment and discrimination in startup investing. Ginny holds a Bachelor of Arts in History & Literature from Harvard University and a Master’s in Business Administration from INSEAD, a global business school with campuses in Europe and Asia.
Flynn Coleman is an author, an international human rights attorney, an environmental advocate, a Fellow at Harvard and Yale, and a professor. Flynn is the Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow in the Department of Law at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and is also a Visiting Researcher at the University of Copenhagen in the Law Faculty. She has been named a Technology & Human Rights Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.
August 2023: Technology is Infrastructure | Featuring Lyel Resner, Saima Akhtar, Matt Mitchell, and Claire Liu Yang
The panel focused on how innovation is necessary in workforce development in order to recruit a wide range of disciplines and voices to foster a more equitable tech ecosystem. It also explored how a diverse range of backgrounds and voices are required in cybersecurity and public interest technology.
Chief of Staff at Silicon Harlem Claire Liu Yang reminds us that technology is infrastructure. Liu Yang’s reminder served as the framework for the evening, making us question how we perceive, develop, and deploy technology.
“So I'm gonna return to that sentence that I hope all of you remember, technology is infrastructure, right? What does that mean? What does that mean when you think about it? Technology is infrastructure…Do you think one person built [the] New York City subway? Do you think one person can build that? Is that possible? No. Because infrastructure is not a single skillset, right?…So there's so many different skillsets needed, and I bet that in this room we have a good combination of them. And that's what's beautiful about it.” Liu Yang said to the capacity audience.
Building off Liu Yang’s reminder, Dr. Saima Akhtar addressed how it is essential for people to consider that inequitable structures produce inequitable results.
“Technology is infrastructure and the way that I think about it really is that like, I studied the built environment, right? I think about the inequities that are built into the world around us. We think about these buildings as just magically appearing. No, there was an architect, there was a patron, there was a plan, and in that same way, the internet is, whether it's virtual or infrastructure. So those same inequities are gonna be built in our virtual world if they don't get resolved in our physical world. And so I think that it's really important to think about all hands on deck ways of thinking about the future of technology and its impact on society” Dr. Saima Akhtar said.
To help summarize the panel, All Tech Is Human Program Associate Elisa Fox synthesized three key insights.
Lived experience is essential.
If you wanna do it, you can do it.
Technology is infrastructure.
Saima Akhtar is the Senior Associate Director of the Vagelos Computational Science Center (CSC) at Barnard College. She is a computational social scientist with a background in architecture and software engineering. Prior to joining Barnard, Saima was a postdoctoral associate in the Yale University Department of Computer Science, where she managed digital cultural heritage preservation projects between the fields of computer science and architecture. At Barnard, Saima works with faculty and students to creatively and critically think about the application of computing across disciplines.
Matt Mitchell is a well known security researcher, operational security trainer, and data journalist who founded and leads CryptoHarlem, impromptu workshops teaching basic cryptography tools to the predominately African American community in upper Manhattan. He hosts a weekly livestream that educates all people on how to stay safe from digital harms. Matt is also the Senior Cybersecurity Program Manager at The Ford Foundation.
Claire Liu Yang is an emerging leader who demonstrates that female leadership can transcend social stigmas and shatter barriers. With a passion for building infrastructure that’s blind to gender, age, income, race and disabilities, the chief of staff at Silicon Harlem manages the broadband that provides internet service for affordable housing in underserved communities.
Lyel Resner is currently Visiting Faculty and the Head of the Public Interest Technology Studio at Cornell Tech, where he leads programming for 400+ graduate students on creating tech to create a more just future, and co-leads the Startups & Society Initiative (SSI) — a non profit research project backed by Ford, OSF, and Omidyar to support founders and investors with responsible innovation practices. As part of SSI, Lyel Co-founded the Responsible Innovation Founders Summit — an annual event that has attracted 700+ global tech leaders including founders backed by Y-Combinator, General Catalyst, and Sequoia, and published the Responsible Innovation Primer for Founders — a distillation of 100+ interviews of influential tech and civil society leaders about building tech companies responsibly.
Moderated by: Elisa Fox comes to All Tech Is Human with a decade of program management experience in a variety of sectors ranging from higher education to the think tank space. Her past work and research have focused on cyber policy in the global south and ways to bring different perspectives into the policy conversation. Elisa holds a B.A. in Politics and M.S. in Global Affairs from New York University.
October 2023: Your Face Belongs To Us Book Celebration | Fireside Chat
November 2023: Co-Innovating Healthy Digital Public Spaces
Hundreds of people working to build a better tech future turned out for a panel that featured Jackie Lho (Global Policy & Engagement for Naver Z), Zhamilya Bilyalova (founder of PrivaZy and a student researcher at Youth, Media, and Well-being Lab at Wellesley College), Joshua Lavra (Creative Lead at Hopelab), and Bzu Shiferaw (Campaign Organizer at Fairplay), and moderated by Sabrina Abdalla (Program Manager at Headstream).
Abdalla opened the discussion by asking the panel how tech products can better cater to the needs of young people.
“The reality is, we have no idea what youth are facing today and what their perceived reality is so really reaching out to youth, involving them in the process, getting their feedback, taking those insights and doing something with it is really critical.” Jackie Lho, Global Policy & Engagement for Naver Z said.
Catering to the needs of youth in tech can be difficult without representation in the design and deployment stages. Joshua Lavra, Creative Lead in Hopelab, detailed a story about how critical feedback on development of a chatbot helped the team learn about what technology youth enjoy interacting with and dedicating time to.
“I think it comes down to just building a relationship with the people that you hope to support.” Lavra said.
“Youth are the ones who've had a childhood that is intertwined with technology, and they've really grown up, so they need to be at the forefront of these conversations.” Bzu Shiferaw, Campaign Organizer at Fairplay, followed.
All Tech is Human will return to Betaworks soon - click here to stay up-to-date with our upcoming gatherings!