Timnit Gebru

The Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute's creator and executive director is Timnit Gebru (DAIR). She had previously been let go by Google in December 2020 for voicing concerns about workplace discrimination while she was co-lead of the Ethical AI research team. After earning her Ph.D. from Stanford University, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the FATE (Fairness Accountability Transparency and Ethics in AI) group at Microsoft Research in New York City. There, she researched algorithmic bias and the moral ramifications of projects that aim to extract insights from data. Timnit is also on the board of AddisCoder, a nonprofit organization that teaches algorithms and computer programming to Ethiopian high school students without charge. Timnit also co-founded Black in AI, a nonprofit organization that works to increase the presence, inclusion, visibility, and health of Black people in the field of AI.