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Timnit Gebru

Timnit Gebru

@timnitgebru.bsky.social

29K followers 780 following 870 posts

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Founder: The Distributed AI Research Institute @dairinstitute.bsky.social.

Author: The View from Somewhere, a memoir & manifesto arguing for a technological future that serves our communities (to be published by One Signal / Atria .. more

Timnit Gebru is an Eritrean Ethiopian-born computer scientist who works in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), algorithmic bias and data mining. She is a co-founder of Black in AI, an advocacy group that has pushed for more Black roles in AI development and research. She is the founder of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR). .. more

Computer science 77%

Mathematics 7%

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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · Apr 15

🔇🔇🔇Announcing new work from DAIR which is very close to my heart, 3 years in the making.

When #TigrayGenocide, the deadliest genocide of the 21st century thus far, started in November 2020, it was 1 month before I got fired from Google. 🧵

english.elpais.com/internationa...

Ethiopia’s forgotten war is the deadliest of the 21st century, with around 600,000 civilian deaths

Estimates by European institutions and academics say over half a million non-combatants have died during the Tigray conflict as a result of a government blockade that kept out humanitarian aid

english.elpais.com

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Brian Keegan

Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 6h

If you are interested in the methodology behind the Data Workers' Inquiry Project (@dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social), this is the paper for you.

Research doesn't have to be exploitative.👇🏽

Milagros Miceli @milamiceli.bsky.social · 16h

📣New paper!
Thrilled to share the methodological recipe for @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social in this article co-authored with @adiod.bsky.social @krystalkauffman.bsky.social Camilla Salim Wagner, Laurenz Sachenbacher @alexhanna.bsky.social & @timnitgebru.bsky.social

👉 ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...

Proceedings of the Eighth AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (AIES2025)

Methodological Considerations for Centering Workers’ Epistemic Authority in AIResearchMilagros Miceli1, 2, 3, Adio-Adet Dinika1, Krystal Kauffman1, Camilla Salim Wagner2, 3,Laurenz Sachenbacher2, 3, Alex Hanna1, Timnit Gebru11The Distributed AI Research Institute2Weizenbaum-Institute3Technische Universit ̈at Berlinmila@dair-institute.org, adio@dair-institute.org, krystal@dair-institute.org, camilla.salim.wagner@tu-berlin.de,l.sachenbacher@tu-berlin.de, alex@dair-institute.org, timnit@dair-institute.org

Reposted by Timnit Gebru, Lisa W. Fazio, Simon J. Greenhill , and 1 more Timnit Gebru, Lisa W. Fazio, Simon J. Greenhill, Gerry Canavan

Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 7h

Additionally, OpenAI argues its not liable because Raine, by using ChatGPT for self-harm, broke its terms of service

Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 9h

"Scientists say it’s time to consider whether they’re onto something" 🙄 lol but you're a "skeptic" not the scientist. They're so insidious

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

Margaret Mitchell @mmitchell.bsky.social · 14h

Pro tip: If the person providing a different interpretation is not speaking for Moneyed Interests and is an expert in their field, they’re an “independent scholar”—not just a “skeptic” (ffs!)

Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 17h

Okay, I hestitate to even share this link, because while I like NYMag I do not want to send this journalist in particular clicks, b ut:

If your framing is that an academic is the "dominant voice" and the underdogs are OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, maybe a fact check in is order??

>>

Is ChatGPT Conscious?

Many users feel they’re talking to a real person. Scientists say it’s time to consider whether they’re onto something.

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

Milagros Miceli @milamiceli.bsky.social · 16h

In sum, this work is not only a methodological account but a proposal for reorienting AI research toward worker-led knowledge rather than extraction.

Read the full article here: ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...

Methodological Considerations for Centering Workers’ Epistemic Authority in AI Research | Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

Milagros Miceli @milamiceli.bsky.social · 16h

Finally, WIRM fosters what Gramsci called "organic intellectuals" embedded in the material conditions and collective struggles of their class. It cultivates networks of solidarity and tools for analysis generated from within worker communities.
See for instance: data-workers.org/DLA/

Organizing Across Borders, by Joan Kinyua

The Data Labelers Association is developing mutual support structures and fighting for better working conditions. This inquiry recounts our path to founding it and acknowledges our ongoing partnership...

data-workers.org

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

Milagros Miceli @milamiceli.bsky.social · 16h

Second, we bring this approach into the AI domain. WIRM provides a way to illuminate the human labor underpinning AI systems while allowing workers to define the terms of that illumination.
Our repository is proof of that: data-workers.org#Inquiries

Data Workers' Inquiry - Data Workers' Inquiry

Data Workers' Inquiry

data-workers.org

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

Milagros Miceli @milamiceli.bsky.social · 16h

First, we systematize Workers’ Inquiry as a Research Methodology (WIRM). We focus on its political grounding, its architecture, and its operationalization, offering a step-by-step guide, examples, and a discussion of challenges and tensions.

Table summarizing WIRM's phases and steps, linked to their respective challenges and tensions.

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

Milagros Miceli @milamiceli.bsky.social · 16h

Workers’ inquiry operates both as a research strategy and a political practice: a way to produce situated knowledge, reveal structures of exploitation, create space for workers to theorize their own conditions, and, crucially, to organize.

Our contributions are several:

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

Milagros Miceli @milamiceli.bsky.social · 16h

To address this challenge, we turned to the long tradition of workers’ inquiry: from Marx’s 1880 questionnaire, through Italian workerism and the mid-century autonomist movements, to contemporary scholars such as @karengregory.bsky.social and @jamiewoodcock.com.

www.marxists.org/history/etol...

Karl Marx: A Workers' Inquiry (1880)

Karl Marx: A Workers' Inquiry (1880)

www.marxists.org

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

Milagros Miceli @milamiceli.bsky.social · 16h

My aim with DWI was to develop a research process in which data workers could shape research agendas, interpretive frameworks, and conceptual categories.

The challenge was how to do this methodologically, beyond extractive social science conventions.
data-workers.org/about/how-to...

How We Made Data Workers' Inquiry, by Milagros Miceli

This piece traces how Data Workers‘ Inquiry came to life: not as a project with clear answers, but as a messy, stubborn attempt to put research in the hands of the people living the realities research...

data-workers.org

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

Milagros Miceli @milamiceli.bsky.social · 16h

📣New paper!
Thrilled to share the methodological recipe for @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social in this article co-authored with @adiod.bsky.social @krystalkauffman.bsky.social Camilla Salim Wagner, Laurenz Sachenbacher @alexhanna.bsky.social & @timnitgebru.bsky.social

👉 ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...

Proceedings of the Eighth AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (AIES2025)

Methodological Considerations for Centering Workers’ Epistemic Authority in AIResearchMilagros Miceli1, 2, 3, Adio-Adet Dinika1, Krystal Kauffman1, Camilla Salim Wagner2, 3,Laurenz Sachenbacher2, 3, Alex Hanna1, Timnit Gebru11The Distributed AI Research Institute2Weizenbaum-Institute3Technische Universit ̈at Berlinmila@dair-institute.org, adio@dair-institute.org, krystal@dair-institute.org, camilla.salim.wagner@tu-berlin.de,l.sachenbacher@tu-berlin.de, alex@dair-institute.org, timnit@dair-institute.org

Reposted by Timnit Gebru, Margaret Mitchell, Janet Murray

Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 17h

Okay, I hestitate to even share this link, because while I like NYMag I do not want to send this journalist in particular clicks, b ut:

If your framing is that an academic is the "dominant voice" and the underdogs are OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, maybe a fact check in is order??

>>

Is ChatGPT Conscious?

Many users feel they’re talking to a real person. Scientists say it’s time to consider whether they’re onto something.

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 18h

I think there's an interesting study of media to be done looking at who gets labeled an "expert" and who gets labeled a "skeptic". Certainly for coverage of "AI", but I wonder if there are other topics that would make interesting comparisons.

Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 1d

Pen and paper?

TechCrunch @techcrunch.com · 1d

Altman and Ive tease a simple AI device aimed at calm, distraction-free computing, launching within two years.

Altman describes OpenAI's forthcoming AI device as more peaceful and calm than the iPhone | TechCrunch

Altman and Ive tease a simple AI device aimed at calm, distraction-free computing, launching within two years.

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

TechCrunch @techcrunch.com · 1d

Altman and Ive tease a simple AI device aimed at calm, distraction-free computing, launching within two years.

Altman describes OpenAI's forthcoming AI device as more peaceful and calm than the iPhone | TechCrunch

Altman and Ive tease a simple AI device aimed at calm, distraction-free computing, launching within two years.

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

Gizmodo @gizmodo.com · 1d

OpenAI Is Having a Mental Health Crisis https://gizmodo.com/openai-is-having-a-mental-health-crisis-2000690751

OpenAI Is Having a Mental Health Crisis

ChatGPT's mental health team is bleeding talent and facing controversy

Reposted by Timnit Gebru, Anna O. Law, Henning Melber , and 10 more Timnit Gebru, Anna O. Law, Henning Melber, Juan Cole, Mary Corcoran, Caroline T. Schroeder, Caroline Fohlin, Henry Jones, James A. Benn, Aviel Roshwald, Élisabeth Vallet, Dunlap, David Darmofal

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 1d

Breaking: Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, has died. She was 111 years old

Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, has died

Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, has died. She was 111 years old.

www.whatimreading.net

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

Zazaa @zazaa.bsky.social · 1d

Comment faire plus court et percutant ? @timnitgebru.bsky.social explique que :
1- L'AGI est une chose fictive, sans réelle définition.
2- Pour développer un système, on met une entrée, on regarde la sortie. Si ça ne va pas, on corrige.
3- On teste les limites d'un pont (charge...)
Et pour l'AGI ?

‘AGI is a fictional thing’ — Timnit Gebru on artificial general intelligence

YouTube video by nature video

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

The Distributed AI Research (DAIR) Institute @dairinstitute.bsky.social · 1d

Catch up on the latest episode of Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000!

🎃 🔥 In which @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social tackle another “All Hell” episode! Join them as they work their way through the horrors... 🔥🎃

Listen here: www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/epis...

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 3d

AGI is a scam

www.ru.nl/en/research/...

Don’t believe the hype: AGI is far from inevitable | Radboud University

Will AI soon surpass the human brain? If you ask employees at OpenAI, Google DeepMind and other large tech companies, it is inevitable. However, researchers at Radboud University and other institutes ...