Abeba Birhane

I am a cognitive scientist researching AI accountability. This encompasses from systematic examination of the AI ecology and governance structures, to execution of algorithmic audits. Central to my research is challenging and dismantling societal and historical inequalities and power asymmetries; holding responsible bodies accountable; and paving the way for a future marked by just and equitable AI systems that work for all. I recently finished my PhD, where I explored the challenges and pitfalls of automating human behaviour through critical examination of existing computational models and audits of large scale datasets. You can read my thesis here.

I am the founder and principal investigator of the AI Accountability Lab (AIAL) housed at the School of Computer Science and Statistics in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

Publications

Gyllingberg, L., Birhane, A., Sumpter, D. (2023). The lost art of mathematical modelling . arxiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2301.08559
Dingemanse, M., Liesenfeld, A., Rasenberg, M., Albert, S., Ameka, F., Birhane, A., Bolis, D., Cassell, J., Clift, R., Cuffari, E., Jaegher, H., Novaes, C., Enfield, N., Fusaroli, R., Gregoromichelaki, E., Hutchins, E., Konvalinka, I., Milton, D., RDczaszek-Leonardi, J., Reddy, V., Rossano, F., Schlangen, D., Seibt, J., Stokoe, E., Suchman, L., Vesper, C., Wheatley, T., Wiltschko, M. (2023). Beyond single-mindedness: a figure-ground reversal for the cognitive sciences . Cognitive Science, Volume 47, Issue 1, e13230. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13230
Birhane, A. (2022). The unseen black faces of ai algorithms . Nature.
Birhane, A., Isaac, W., Prabhakaran, V., DC-az, M., Elish, M., Gabriel, I., Mohamed, S. (2022). Power to the people? opportunities and challenges for participatory ai . EAAMO '22: Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization. Article No.: 6, Pages 1b8 . https://doi.org/10.1145/3551624.3555290
Birhane, A. (2022). The limits of fairness . AIES '22: Proceedings of the 2022 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, July 2022, Pages 2 . https://doi.org/10.1145/3514094.3539568
Birhane, A., Kalluri, P., Card, D., Agnew, W., Dotan, R., Bao, M. (2022). The values encoded in machine learning research. 2022 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency. https://doi.org/10.1145/3531146.3533083
Birhane, A., Ruane, E., Laurent, T., Brown, M.S., Flowers, J., Ventresque, A,. Dancy, C.L. (2022). The forgotten margins of ai ethics. FAccT '22: 2022 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency . https://doi.org/10.1145/3531146.3533157
Weidinger, L., Mellor, J., Rauh, M., Griffin, C., Uesato, J., Huang, P.S., Cheng, M., Glaese, M., Balle, B., Kasirzadeh, A., Kenton, Z., Brown, S., Hawkins, W., Stepleton, T., Biles, C., Birhane, A., Haas, J., Rimell, L., Hendricks, L.A., Isaac, W., Legassick, S., Irving, G., Gabriel, I. (2022). Taxonomy of risks posed by language models. FAccT '22: 2022 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency . https://doi.org/10.1145/3531146.3533088
Leslie, D., Briggs, M., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S., RincC3n, C., Raval, N., Birhane, A., Powell, R., Katell, M., Aitken, M. (2022). Data justice stories: a repository of case studies . arxiv. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6408326
Birhane, A., Sumpter, D.J.T. (2022). The games we play: critical complexity improves machine learning . arxiv.
Derczynski, L., Kirk, H.R., Birhane, A., Vidgen, B. (2022). Handling and presenting harmful text. arxiv.
Leslie, D., Katell, M., Aitken, M., Singh, J., Briggs, M., Powell, R., RincC3n, C., Chengeta, T., Birhane, A., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S., Mazumder, A. (2022). Advancing data justice research and practice: an integrated literature review . arxiv.
Birhane, A., Prabhu, V.U., Whaley, J. (2022). Auditing saliency cropping algorithms. Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV), 2022, pp. 4051-4059.
Birhane, A. (2021). Algorithmic injustice: a relational ethics approach . Patterns.
Birhane, A., Cummins, F. (2021). Algorithmic injustices: towards a relational ethics . arxiv. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2021.100205
Birhane, A., Prabhu, V.U., Kahembwe, E. (2021). Multimodal datasets: misogyny, pornography, and malignant stereotypes . arxiv.
Birhane, A., van Dijk, J., Pasquale, F. (2021). Debunking robot rights metaphysically, ethically, and legally. Conference2nd Philosophy of Human Technology Relations Conference.
Birhane, A., Prabhu, V.U. (2021). Large image datasets: a pyrrhic win for computer vision? . 2021 IEEE Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV).
Birhane, A., (2021). The impossibility of automating ambiguity. Artificial Life. https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_a_00336
Abebe, R., Aruleba, K., Birhane, A., Kingsley, S. (2021). Narratives and counternarratives on data sharing in africa. Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency. https://doi.org/10.1145/3442188.3445897
Birhane, A., Guest, O. (2021). Towards decolonising computational sciences. Women, Gender & Research. https://doi.org/10.7146/kkf.v29i2.124899
Birhane, A. (2020). An antidote to the orthodoxy (data feminism book review). The Psychologist.
Birhane, A. (2020). Algorithmic colonization of africa. SCRIPTed- A Journal of Law, Technology and Society. https://doi.org/10.2966/scrip.170220.389
Birhane, A. & van Dijk, J. (2020). A misdirected application of ai ethics. Noema.
Birhane, A. (2020). Fair warning. Real Life.
Birhane, A., van Dijk, J. (2020). Robot rights? let's talk about human welfare instead. AIES '20: Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society . https://doi.org/10.1145/3375627.3375855
Ruane, E., Birhane, A., Ventresque, A. (2019). Conversational ai: social and ethical considerations. . AICS - 27th AIAI Irish Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science.
Newman, S., Birhane, A., Zajko, M., Osoba, O., Prunkl, C., Lima, G., Bowen, J., Sutton, R., & Adams, C. (2019). Ai and agency. UCLA.
Birhane, A. (2019). The algorithmic colonization of africa. Real Life.
Birhane, A., Grayson, S. (2018). Science: whose truth? whose facts? . Mary Mulvihill Award.
Birhane, A., (2017). Descartes was wrong:'a person is a person through other persons' . Aeon.
Birhane, A., Fitzpatrick, R., Kavanagh, C., Roger, J. (2016). Illusory correlations: an investigation in a social media setting . AICS.