Automating (In)justice: Policing and Sentencing in the Algorithm Age
The U.S. incarcerates more people than any country in the world, and Black communities are disproportionately impacted by this mass incarceration. The disparities are staggering: although the majority of illegal drug users and dealers are white, three quarters of those imprisoned for these crimes have been Black or Latino (the New Jim Crow).Across the country, big data, algorithms, and predictive analytics play an increasingly prominent role in policing and sentencing. In theory, tools like predictive policing and risk-based sentencing reduce bias by replacing subjective judgments with hard data. In practice, these tools often perpetuate cycles of racism. In this session, we address the questions: How can we use data to fight racism in policing and in the courtroom? In a world where discrimination is automated, how do we hold algorithms accountable?
Moderator: Adam Foss
Participants: Samuel Sinyangwe, Julia Angwin, Charmaine Arthur, and Kim Foxx
Algorithmic Justice: Race, Bias, and Big Data
Algorithmic Justice: Race, Bias, and Big Data
Speakers will discuss algorithms, race, and justice–the problems and the possibilities.
What is Data for Black Lives?
What is Data for Black Lives?
Data for Black Lives is a movement of activists, organizers, and mathematicians committed to the mission of using data science to create concrete and measurable change in the lives of Black people. Since the advent of computing, big data and algorithms have penetrated virtually every aspect of ou...
Black People vs Robots: Reparations and Workers Rights in the Age of Automation
Black People vs Robots: Reparations and Workers Rights in the Age of Automation
In 2009, 13% of the US population were either self-employed or working as independent contractors, in 2016 this number had doubled. And from Silicon Valley to the US Supreme court, the rights of workers are under attack. At the same time, robots capable of driving cars, assembling goods, and cari...
Yeshimabeit Milner FAccT 2021 Keynote
Yeshimabeit Milner FAccT 2021 Keynote
In this keynote address at the FAcct 2021 Conference, Founder & Executive Director Yeshimabeit Milner calls on researchers to do more than push for fairness, accountability and transparency-- but to demand justice, power and self-determination in the fight to make data as a tool for social chang...
Black Work, Black Wealth, Black Futures
Black Work, Black Wealth, Black Futures
New innovations in technology are radically changing our economy. Self-driving cars are poised to transform the trucking industry, putting over eight million people at risk of losing their jobs. Exciting advances in 3D printing and digital fabrication will create new possibilities for manufacturi...
Pain, Place, and Race
Pain, Place, and Race
In cities like Chicago and Baltimore, where you live determines the length and quality of your life. Life expectancies range from the mid-80s in more affluent neighborhoods to 60s in the poorest communities. From gun violence to opioid addiction to suicide to sexual violence, Black and Brown comm...
“The seas are rising but so are the people”: Data, Disaster & Collective Power
“The seas are rising but so are the people”: Data, Disaster & Collective Power
For many Black communities, a storm of policies and practices hit well before the first rains of Katrina, Harvey, Matthew or Florence. And everyday, these storms rage in plain sight. Climate change has magnified the devastating impact of displacement driven by unbearable housing costs. It has rev...
Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Education Justice and Mathematics
Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Education Justice and Mathematics
Almost 65 years after the US Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v Board of Education, public education in this country remains fundamentally separate and unequal. In general, white children from affluent backgrounds receive a world-class public education (OECD), while Black and brown children from lo...
The Revolution Will be Digitized: Music, Technology, and Black Cultural Production
The Revolution Will be Digitized: Music, Technology, and Black Cultural Production
Black artists have shaped the history of American music and continue to do so every day. Virtually every form of popular music around the world has roots in the powerful African-American musical traditions of Jazz, Blues, R&B, Rock and Roll and Hip Hop. But these same artists have historically be...
D4BL Movement Roundtable + Pulse Check: COVID-19
D4BL Movement Roundtable + Pulse Check: COVID-19
On April 15th, 2020, Data for Black Lives hosted a virtual roundtable and pulse check for our movement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The roundtable features experts including Black epidemiologists who have been leading the research and efforts to change the conditions that make Black ...
Opening Panel: Data for Black Lives
Opening Panel: Data for Black Lives
Since the advent of computing, big data and algorithms have penetrated virtually every aspect of our social and economic lives. New data systems have tremendous potential to empower communities of color. Tools like statistical modeling, data visualization, and crowd-sourcing, in the right hands, ...
Closing Keynote and Farewell
Closing Keynote and Farewell
Keynote Address: Ronald Sullivan Farewell: Yeshimabeit Milner, Lucas Mason-Brown, and Max Clermont
Data for Black Lives Fast Facts
Data for Black Lives Fast Facts
Movement Roundtable + Pulse Check: COVID-19
Movement Roundtable + Pulse Check: COVID-19
Abolition in the Age of Big Data
Abolition in the Age of Big Data
Fingerprints, facial recognition, background checks, gang databases, FBI lists, social media surveillance, credit scores: data has always been central to the expansion of the prison industrial complex, the immigration enforcement industry, and the financialization of our economy. Abolition is...
Just Equations: Mathematics of Opportunity
Just Equations: Mathematics of Opportunity
Just Equations’ sixth annual Mathematics of Opportunity conference will explore the future of equity in mathematics education and showcase the voices of education leaders, policymakers, and equity experts working to elevate math opportunities for the next generation. D4BL founder & CEO, Yeshi...
D4BL III
D4BL III
November 18-20, 2024 at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami.
Algorithmic Justice: Race, Bias, and Big Data
Algorithmic Justice: Race, Bias, and Big Data
Speakers will discuss algorithms, race, and justice–the problems and the possibilities.
What is Data for Black Lives?
What is Data for Black Lives?
Data for Black Lives is a movement of activists, organizers, and mathematicians committed to the mission of using data science to create concrete and measurable change in the lives of Black people. Since the advent of computing, big data and algorithms have penetrated virtually every aspect of ou...
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Opening Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Yeshimabeit Milner, D4BL Executive Director (10 min) Keynote Address: Meredith Broussard (45 min) Poetry: Joy Buolamwini (5 min)
What is Data Capitalism?
What is Data Capitalism?
Data for Black Lives and Demos released a groundbreaking new report addressing data capitalism and offering solutions that build power for Black and brown communities. In the age of "big data" and surveillance, we need to be concerned about more than just personal privacy. Take a look at how d...
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Conference Welcome: Rafael Reif, President of MIT (5 min) Opening Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Yeshimabeit Milner, D4BL Executive Director (20 min) Keynote Address: Ruha Benjamin (45 min)
AI Now Institute: Confronting Black Boxes: A Shadow Report of the New York City Automated Decision System Task Force
AI Now Institute: Confronting Black Boxes: A Shadow Report of the New York City Automated Decision System Task Force
In 2017, New York City became the first US jurisdiction to create a task force to come up with recommendations for government use of Automated decision systems (ADS). This report is a community powered shadow report that provides a comprehensive record of what happened during the Task Force’s rev...
Opening Panel: Data for Black Lives
Opening Panel: Data for Black Lives
Since the advent of computing, big data and algorithms have penetrated virtually every aspect of our social and economic lives. New data systems have tremendous potential to empower communities of color. Tools like statistical modeling, data visualization, and crowd-sourcing, in the right hands, ...
Data Intersections 2020 | The University of Miami Institute for Data Science & Computing
Data Intersections 2020 | The University of Miami Institute for Data Science & Computing
Big Data is more than a collection of technologies, more than a revolution in measurement and prediction. It has become a philosophy, an ideological regime, one that determines how decisions are made and who makes them. It has given legitimacy to a new form of social and political control, one th...
We are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For: Organizing for Algorithmic Accountability
We are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For: Organizing for Algorithmic Accountability
As algorithms and automated decisions continue to impact every aspect of our lives, in Black communities nationwide these decision-making systems animate already existing structures of oppression and inequality. From risk assessments to school enrollment algorithms to child predictive analytics a...
What Even IS an Algorithm? | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 1, Season 1
What Even IS an Algorithm? | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 1, Season 1
What even is an algorithm? Algorithms seem to have this vice grip on our lives. However, most of us don't even know exactly what an algorithm is or does. Here at Data for Black Lives, we aim to fight algorithmic injustice, and in order to do that, we need to fully understand what we're up against...
Advancing Community Engaged Approaches to Identifying Structural Drivers of Racial Bias in Health Diagnostic Algorithms
Advancing Community Engaged Approaches to Identifying Structural Drivers of Racial Bias in Health Diagnostic Algorithms
Following an initial system dynamics workshop at the Data for Black Lives II conference hosted at MIT in January of 2019, a group of conference participants interested in building capabilities to use system dynamics to understand complex societal issues convened monthly to explore issues related to racial bias in AI and implications for health disparities through qualitative and simulation modeling.
Oxford Union Debate on A.I. as an Existential Threat
Oxford Union Debate on A.I. as an Existential Threat
On October 19, 2023, our Founder & CEO debated Max Tegmark & Jaan Taalin of the Future of Humanity Institute and authors of the Open Letter to Pause AI on motion: the House believes AI is an Existential Threat. Yeshimabeit argued what we know to be true: that the biggest existential threat is ...
No Humans Involved
No Humans Involved
The battle for the soul of AI is not about preventing tech from becoming human but about preventing AI from being used to define who is human and who is not.
Consentful Tech Curriculum
Consentful Tech Curriculum
In 2021 Data for Black Lives joined forces with the Consentful Tech Project to release a curriculum guides practitioners through a process to develop technology in truly inclusive but also consentful ways, pushing back against the weaponization of data. We have designed this curriculum to be ...
Congressional Briefing on AI and Civil Rights
Congressional Briefing on AI and Civil Rights
Briefing on Artificial Intelligence and Civil Rights With Senator Cory Booker and Data for Black Lives & Leading Advocates
Ohio State Technology Law Journal Symposium
Ohio State Technology Law Journal Symposium
On Friday, March 22, Yeshimabeit Milner will speak at the Ohio State Technology Law Journal Symposium. Her remarks will expand upon the Data for Black Lives #NoMoreDataWeapons campaign, calling attention to harmful applications of AI in the criminal justice system. Please join us in person or via...
Oxford Union Debate: AI is an 'Existential Threat'
Oxford Union Debate: AI is an 'Existential Threat'
On October 19, 2023, our Founder & CEO debated Max Tegmark & Jaan Taalin of the Future of Humanity Institute and the authors of the Open Letter to Pause AI. The video of her speech will be live on the Oxford Union YouTube channel soon. We will be sharing it on this page once it is live.
Apartheid Is an Algorithm
Apartheid Is an Algorithm
On October 14, 2023, Founder & CEO Yeshimabeit Milner delivered the keynote speech Apartheid Is an Algorithm at the Milky Way Tech Summit held at Northwestern Mutual Financial in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Yeshimabeit Milner | Data Activism at The Malcom X and Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial + Education Center
Yeshimabeit Milner | Data Activism at The Malcom X and Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial + Education Center
This keynote was delivered by our founder and CEO, Yeshimabeit Milner on Data Activism at The Malcom X and Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial + Education Center on February 23, 2024 at 5 PM. The event was hosted in partnership with the Barnard Department of Computer Science and Barnard Library. London-...
Just Equations' Sixth Annual Conference
Just Equations' Sixth Annual Conference
In April 2024, Yeshi Milner delivered a powerful opening keynote at Just Equations’ sixth annual conference, titled The Mathematics of Opportunity: Closing the Divide.
Data Activism + Decompress
Data Activism + Decompress
This keynote was delivered by our founder and CEO, Yeshimabeit Milner on Data Activism at The Malcom X and Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial + Education Center on February 23, 2024 at 5 PM. The event was hosted in partnership with the Barnard Department of Computer Science and Barnard Library. London-...
D4BL I
D4BL I
On November 17-19 2017 we brought together community members, organizers, academics, technologists, educators, artists, policy makers, and public servants for the inaugural Data for Black Lives conference at the MIT Media Lab.
D4BL III
D4BL III
November 18-20, 2024 at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami.
What is Data for Black Lives?
What is Data for Black Lives?
Data for Black Lives is a movement of activists, organizers, and mathematicians committed to the mission of using data science to create concrete and measurable change in the lives of Black people. Since the advent of computing, big data and algorithms have penetrated virtually every aspect of ou...
Yeshimabeit Milner FAccT 2021 Keynote
Yeshimabeit Milner FAccT 2021 Keynote
In this keynote address at the FAcct 2021 Conference, Founder & Executive Director Yeshimabeit Milner calls on researchers to do more than push for fairness, accountability and transparency-- but to demand justice, power and self-determination in the fight to make data as a tool for social chang...
Data for Black Lives Statement in Solidarity with Palestine 🇵🇸
Data for Black Lives Statement in Solidarity with Palestine 🇵🇸
We at Data for Black Lives stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and demand an end to Israeli Apartheid.
D4BL II Welcome
D4BL II Welcome
Opening Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Yeshimabeit Milner, D4BL Executive Director (10 min)
No More Data Weapons
No More Data Weapons
Data for Black Lives is launching #NoMoreDataWeapons. No more investing in Data Weapons, No more building new Data Weapons, No more disguising Data Weapons as legitimate and neutral.
CA Reparations Task Force
CA Reparations Task Force
The state of California is the first and only state to have created a state body dedicated to the study and proposal of reparations. On January 27 I gave expert testimony on discrimination in technology to the California Task Force to Study and Develop a Proposal for Reparations at the first meet...
Abolish Big Data
Abolish Big Data
Abolition means the creation of something new - the history of big data and a prophecy for big data abolition.
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Conference Welcome: Rafael Reif, President of MIT (5 min) Opening Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Yeshimabeit Milner, D4BL Executive Director (20 min) Keynote Address: Ruha Benjamin (45 min)
Amazon is selling facial recognition software to the police - here's why it matters.
Amazon is selling facial recognition software to the police - here's why it matters.
In a country where we’re still trying to end the dangerous culture of racial profiling - from Starbucks to student lounges to public spaces - we won’t allow one of the biggest tech companies to use their immense resources to fuel the incarceration machine. Facial recognition software is most...
What's up with FACIAL RECOGNITION? | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 2, Season 1
What's up with FACIAL RECOGNITION? | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 2, Season 1
What's up with facial recognition? Facial recognition technology has become well integrated into so many parts of our lives. We unlock our phones with our face, Facebook can automatically recognize our friends' faces, and (most concerning) law enforcement can easily recognize our faces in picture...
Data for Black Lives COVID-19 Movement Pulse Check and Roundtable Report
Data for Black Lives COVID-19 Movement Pulse Check and Roundtable Report
On April 15, 2020 the Data for Black Lives Movement held a roundtable to serve as a pulse check for our movement. Today we release the report of this historic event, a culmination of voices and expertise that provides a roadmap for how we must coordinate, organize and mobilize during this crisis ...
AI Now Institute: Confronting Black Boxes: A Shadow Report of the New York City Automated Decision System Task Force
AI Now Institute: Confronting Black Boxes: A Shadow Report of the New York City Automated Decision System Task Force
In 2017, New York City became the first US jurisdiction to create a task force to come up with recommendations for government use of Automated decision systems (ADS). This report is a community powered shadow report that provides a comprehensive record of what happened during the Task Force’s rev...
D4BL II
D4BL II
This weekend we will turn a critical eye to the role that data and technology have played in Black communities. In panels, workshops, and over meals, we will chart out a bold new vision for the future, in which data is used in novel ways to build progressive movements and promote civic engagement...
Introducing #NoMoreDataWeapons | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 1, Season 2
Introducing #NoMoreDataWeapons | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 1, Season 2
Data for Black Lives is launching #NoMoreDataWeapons. No more investing in data weapons, no more building new data weapons, no more disguising data weapons as legitimate and neutral.
What is PREDICTIVE POLICING? | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 4, Season 1
What is PREDICTIVE POLICING? | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 4, Season 1
What is predictive policing? Well, if you've seen the movie Minority Report, you already have a bit of an idea. Predictive policing involves using algorithms to analyze massive amounts of information in order to predict and help prevent potential future crimes. In this episode of the Crash Course...
Building Black Political Power in the Age of Big Data
Building Black Political Power in the Age of Big Data
In 2012, for the first time in American history, Black people had the highest rate of voter turnout of any racial or ethnic group. And advances in data and technology have created new opportunities to expand the political power of Black people and hold institutions accountable. SMS technology has...
We are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For: Organizing for Algorithmic Accountability
We are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For: Organizing for Algorithmic Accountability
As algorithms and automated decisions continue to impact every aspect of our lives, in Black communities nationwide these decision-making systems animate already existing structures of oppression and inequality. From risk assessments to school enrollment algorithms to child predictive analytics a...
Abolition in the Age of Big Data
Abolition in the Age of Big Data
Fingerprints, facial recognition, background checks, gang databases, FBI lists, social media surveillance, credit scores: data has always been central to the expansion of the prison industrial complex, the immigration enforcement industry, and the financialization of our economy. Abolition is...
24th Session of the OHCHR Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent
24th Session of the OHCHR Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent
The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent public session Data for Racial Justice will be held in Geneva from 25-29 March 2019. This thematic session will involve specific focus on its mapping exercise and bring together experts to discuss the human rights situation of people of A...
Ohio State Technology Law Journal Symposium
Ohio State Technology Law Journal Symposium
On Friday, March 22, Yeshimabeit Milner will speak at the Ohio State Technology Law Journal Symposium. Her remarks will expand upon the Data for Black Lives #NoMoreDataWeapons campaign, calling attention to harmful applications of AI in the criminal justice system. Please join us in person or via...
MKE Tech Podcast S:3 Ep.5 Data for Black Lives
MKE Tech Podcast S:3 Ep.5 Data for Black Lives
The MKE Tech Podcast focuses on driving equity and diversity in tech and startup spaces. In this episode, Yeshimabeit Milner shares the origin story of Data for Black Lives, and highlights the #NoMoreDataWeapons campaign among other urgent initiatives.
Yeshimabeit Milner | Data Activism at The Malcom X and Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial + Education Center
Yeshimabeit Milner | Data Activism at The Malcom X and Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial + Education Center
This keynote was delivered by our founder and CEO, Yeshimabeit Milner on Data Activism at The Malcom X and Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial + Education Center on February 23, 2024 at 5 PM. The event was hosted in partnership with the Barnard Department of Computer Science and Barnard Library. London-...
Data Activism + Decompress
Data Activism + Decompress
This keynote was delivered by our founder and CEO, Yeshimabeit Milner on Data Activism at The Malcom X and Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial + Education Center on February 23, 2024 at 5 PM. The event was hosted in partnership with the Barnard Department of Computer Science and Barnard Library. London-...
D4BL I
D4BL I
On November 17-19 2017 we brought together community members, organizers, academics, technologists, educators, artists, policy makers, and public servants for the inaugural Data for Black Lives conference at the MIT Media Lab.
D4BL III
D4BL III
November 18-20, 2024 at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami.