MAY 14: Health Data Science Distinguished Speaker Series: Dr. Mary L. Gray, Microsoft Research

“Bridging AI Divides: Community-Driven Innovation for Equitable AI”

Wednesday May 14, 2025
Hybrid Event
In-person:
Hiebert Lounge
72 E. Concord St, 14th Floor
12:00-1:00pm Seminar
1:00-2:00pm Luncheon

Registration is now closed. View the recording from this event here.

Abstract: In this talk, Mary L. Gray from Microsoft Research explores the critical role of community-industry partnerships in developing equitable AI solutions. The presentation highlights Project Resolve, a longitudinal case study that examines AI innovation through collaboration with community-based organizations (CBOs). By addressing the ‘AI Divides’ that exacerbate inequities within social ecosystems, the project aims to co-develop socially valuable AI models and applications that recognize the critical role community groups will play in the future of AI health applications and AI-driven scientific discovery. Key findings emphasize the importance of integrating community expertise, embracing productive disagreement, and ensuring accountability in engineering’s Agile development processes. The talk also outlines the challenges and opportunities of conducting community-driven AI innovation that require public, private, and civil society partnerships, offering insights into the future of AI driven by strong community-industry partnerships.

Bio: Mary L. Gray is Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. She maintains a faculty position in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering with affiliations in Anthropology and Gender Studies at Indiana University. Mary, an anthropologist and media scholar by training, focuses on how people’s everyday uses of technologies transform labor, identity, and human rights. She earned her PhD in Communication from the University of California at San Diego in 2004, under the direction of Susan Leigh Star. Her books include In Your Face: Stories from the Lives of Queer Youth (1999), Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America (2009), and, most recently, Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass, co-authored with computer scientist Siddharth Suri. Ghost Work chronicles workers’ experiences of on-demand information gig work—from content moderation and data-labeling to telehealth—and their essential role in the global growth of artificial intelligence and platform economies more broadly. The book was named a Financial Times’ Critic’s Pick and awarded the McGannon Center for Communication Research Book Prize in 2019. Mary also chairs the Microsoft Research Ethics Review Program—the only federally-registered institutional review board of its kind in Tech—and she is recognized as a leading expert in the emerging field of AI and ethics. Her research has been covered by publications ranging from The Guardian, El Pais, and The New York Times to Nature, The Economist, and Forbes Magazine. Mary currently sits on several boards, including the California Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors and Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R). In 2020, Mary was named a MacArthur Fellow for her contributions to anthropology and the study of technology, digital economies, and society.