Mozilla’s 2024 Rise25 Honoree Interview: Kathleen Siminyu

What is the biggest tech & society issue we are currently facing?

The biggest tech and society issue we are currently facing is the fact that we continue to build upon and advance technology from a foundational base that was not created for the global audience that technology currently serves. Many attempts at inclusion are superficial because they seek to cater for inclusion/representation at higher levels of the technology stack as opposed to investing in allowing societies at the margins of current tech paradigms to innovate and discover what foundational technologies they can build for themselves and therefore unlock for the world.

It isn't just about the technology either, it is also the bodies of knowledge that exist are predominantly from the western world, and it is the knowledge we continue to base upcoming research on. We once again need to systematically encourage and value knowledge produced from other parts of the world.

Tell us about your role. How does your role help tackle thorny tech & society issues? 

I am a researcher at the DAIR Institute. My research is in the field of Natural Language Processing and focused on building tools for African languages as a form of activism and from a desire to see these languages better represented on digital platforms. The research philosophy at DAIR emphasizes building co-construction of knowledge with our communities as we build for them, interrogating power and redistributing resources. This has phenomenal alignment with my personal principles, and helps guide my work to center my community and identify the best ways to drive societal impact. I also work with African AI communities to enable ecosystem capacity building and research relevant to Africa. One such organisation is the Deep Learning Indaba, where we work to strengthen African Machine Learning and the second is the Masakhane Research Foundation, where our vision is A unified Africa - with the right players collaborating at the intersection of tech and society - where African languages drive, shape and enable transformation in the most critical social domains.

How did your career grow, and what advice would you give to others wanting to be in a similar position?

For my undergraduate, I studied Math and Computer Science. I enjoyed writing code and participated in events hosted by developer communities on campus. I eventually became an organise of one of these communities. At the time, my skills were primarily as a web developer and I worked part-time in the final year of my studies. It was at this time that I also discovered the field of Data Science and realised that it challenged me more than web development. Once I completed my studies, I was intent to work in the field and through engaging with developer communities in Nairobi that brought together professionals in the data science space, I got my first role as a data science intern. I continued to organise tech communities in my city since this was the best way I knew to continuously upskill. It was while working my first job and organising the Nairobi Women in DS and ML community that I discovered the gap in capabilities between language tools for major western languages and those spoken in my country. That is how I got into NLP and my community networks are how I have gotten every single role that I have held professionally since the first.

To those that look up to me:

1. Find your tribe, for me it continues to be tech and developer communities

2. Invest in these spaces as you invest in yourself, you’ll find that this reaps rewards

3. Become attuned to the things that make you come alive and stay true to them. Follow them, your interests and curiosities as much as you can.

4. Pour into your non-work buckets as much as your do your professional one. Invest in fostering a conducive home, relationships with family and friends and hobbies that take you away from your screens and work, they will ground you and keep you sane. Trust me, to go the distance, all your cups have to be well serviced!

5. Have fun while at it. Life is not that serious, no one is getting out alive ;-)

I am honoured to receive this recognition and even more to be listed amongst the ranks of all the other awardees doing exceptional work. It gives me hope that there are many pockets of the world where individuals and communities are working to enable alternative tech futures. It reminds me that there is indeed hope for these alternative futures.- Kathleen Siminyu

What backgrounds or voices would you like to see more of in the Responsible Tech ecosystem?

In thinking specifically about AI and wanting to see datasets that are representative of we need to ensure representation, I’d like to see more involvement from archivists, librarians and anthropologists. In thinking specifically about building language tools, I’d like to see more involvement from linguists. Then for every single domain where we seek to build tools, we should co-create with the domain experts who have spent their careers building expertise in their respective fields.

What is your vision of a better tech future and how we can we move towards that vision?

A better tech future would be one where technology that we interact with gives simple and explicit choices so that each individual can maintain control in adapting their personal experiences.

What does recognized as a Rise25 winner mean to you?

I am honoured to receive this recognition and even more to be listed amongst the ranks of all the other awardees doing exceptional work. It gives me hope that there are many pockets of the world where individuals and communities are working to enable alternative tech futures. It reminds me that there is indeed hope for these alternative futures.