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ISI Natural Language Seminar

From “Democratization” to Personal Names: Reimagining NLP Practices Towards Justice

Event Details

Location: CR#689 Conference Room ISI-MDR

Speaker: Arjun Subramonian, UCLA

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https://usc.zoom.us/j/95338734726?pwd=FwdcZrr7tyjLLiuBgg2DVS6aZKOBf7.1

Meeting ID: 953 3873 4726
Passcode: 100604

Current natural language processing (NLP) practices operate within a set of logics which codify new, and entrench existing, social inequalities and power dynamics. In this talk, I will delve into two troubling NLP practices: the discussion of “democratizing” language technologies and the association of personal names with sociodemographic characteristics. I will reveal how current use of the term “democratization” in NLP can be inconsistent and irresponsible, which risks misrepresenting the distribution of power in and public control of AI; I will further provide recommendations to strengthen progress towards democratic technologies beyond just superficial access. Furthermore, I will survey the issues inherent to associating personal names with sociodemographic attributes, covering problems of validity (e.g., systematic error, construct validity) and ethical concerns (e.g., harms, differential impact, cultural insensitivity). Then, I will offer guiding questions along with normative recommendations to avoid these pitfalls. Ultimately, constructively examining NLP practices through a critical lens is important for advancing justice in the field.

Speaker Bio

Arjun Subramonian is a Computer Science PhD candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles. Their research focuses on the fairness and ethics of machine learning and natural language processing. They are further a core organizer of Queer in AI. They are a recipient of an Amazon Fellowship, NSF NRT Fellowship, Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship, and FAccT 2023 Best Paper Award.

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