About Timnit Gebru
Dr. Timnit Gebru is a prominent Eritrean Ethiopian-born computer scientist and activist known for her work on algorithmic bias and the ethics of artificial intelligence. She is the founder and executive director of the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) and co-founded the non-profit Black in AI. Gebru gained widespread attention after her controversial firing from Google, where she co-led the Ethical AI research team, following a dispute over a paper warning about the dangers of large language models. She has been recognized as one of TIME 100's most influential people in the world.
Education
PhD
PhD - Electrical Engineering
Masters
Masters - Electrical Engineering
BS
BS - Electrical Engineering
Work Experience
Founder & Executive Director
Founder & Executive Director
Co-founder & President of Black in AI
Co-founder & President of Black in AI
Co-lead of Ethical AI Research Team
Co-lead of Ethical AI Research Team
Postdoctoral Researcher
Postdoctoral Researcher
PHD Candidate
PHD Candidate
Student
Worked on a variety of open source projects in Objective C, python, C++, Ruby on Rails and Javascript in order to become a better programmer. Projects include iOS applications and contributions to OpenCV (open source computer vision library) and Requests (open source python based HTTP library)
Co-Founder
Use the design thinking framework under the structure of Innovation Endeavors' Runway Program to identify needs in the small business space and develop solutions.
Part Time Audio Engineer
Worked on a variety of audio related projects mainly involving digital signal processing. An example is the design, simulation and implementation of a 4th order delta sigma modulator and various noise shaped clock generation circuits for iPads and iPhones Part Time Audio Engineer
Audio Systems Engineer
Designed the audio circuitry of Apple TV, iMacs, MacBooks and MacBook Pros as well as other Apple products such as the iPad. Helped vendors develop chips such as CODECs and created specifications for audio hardware. Researched new technologies that could potentially improve the audio quality of Apple’s next generation products. Audio Systems Engineer
Graduate Research Assistant
Worked on a thermal light OCT system for Fourier domain optical coherence tomography with a thermal light source. The goal is to have a fast and cheap OCT system the can be integrated with fluorescence microscopy to analyze various layers of human tissue.
Audio Hardware Intern
Worked on projects that were related to the audio quality of Apple’s computers. Examples of such projects were noise cancellation techniques to improve the quality of speech recognition and limit fan noise heard by the internal microphone of the computer. Other tasks included debugging problems related to the audio hardware circuitry of Apple’s computers.
Key Highlights
Eritrean Ethiopian-born computer scientist focusing on AI, algorithmic bias, and data mining.
Co-founder of Black in AI, a non-profit dedicated to increasing the presence and inclusion of Black people in the field of AI.
Founder and Executive Director of The Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research (DAIR) Institute.
Known for her groundbreaking research on algorithmic bias, particularly in facial recognition technology.
Professional Domains
Dr. Gebru's expertise spans the technical foundations of computer science and the critical social implications of artificial intelligence, with a focus on fairness and accountability.
Artificial Intelligence
Algorithmic Bias
Data Mining
Computer Vision
Machine Learning
Ethical AI
Facial Recognition Inaccuracies
Large Language Model Risks
Institutional Discrimination
Black in AI
AddisCoder Board Member
Community-Rooted Research
Activism
Platform Stats & Expertise
163.4K
AI Ethics
Algorithmic Bias
Computer Vision
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