{"id":98319,"date":"2019-11-09T03:02:37","date_gmt":"2019-11-09T11:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/african-ai-experts-get-excluded-from-a-conference-again"},"modified":"2019-11-09T03:02:37","modified_gmt":"2019-11-09T11:02:37","slug":"african-ai-experts-get-excluded-from-a-conference-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/african-ai-experts-get-excluded-from-a-conference-again","title":{"rendered":"African AI Experts Get Excluded From a Conference\u2014Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Ironically #AI has been proven to develop racial and gender bias. Gee, I wonder why?<\/p>\n

For the second year in a row, more than a dozen AI researchers from African countries have been denied visas to a major AI conference in Canada.<\/p>\n

\n

Canada\u2019s decision to refuse visas to African AI researchers seems ham-fisted, given that the country\u2019s tech industry has been the beneficiary, in recent years, of America\u2019s move toward isolationism. In 2017, Trudeau launched a visa program designed to attract high-tech workers\u2014including those who found themselves unable to get into the US\u2014by streamlining Canada\u2019s visa-approval process. The recent decision to block access to NeurIPS for a diverse pool of talent appears to be a step in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems crazy,\u201d says Joshua Gans<\/a>, a professor at Toronto University\u2019s Rotman School of Business who studies the impact of AI on innovation and economic growth. \u201cWhat is the worst that happens? The scientists come here, stay here, and develop their AI here rather than in Africa?\u201d\\<\/p>\n

Mathieu Genest, a press spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, sent a statement that says the rules outlined by Canada\u2019s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA)<\/a> apply \u201cto everyone, regardless of nationality.\u201d The statement adds that the department did receive the names of NeurIPS attendees who would apply for visas, which were shared with visa officers. And it says people can reapply, but should only do so if they have addressed the reasons their application was refused.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ironically #AI has been proven to develop racial and gender bias. Gee, I wonder why? For the second year in a row, more than a dozen AI researchers from African countries have been denied visas to a major AI conference in Canada. Canada\u2019s decision to refuse visas to African AI researchers seems ham-fisted, given that [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":534,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,39,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-economics","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}