#32: Amba Kak and Shazeda Ahmed on the Implications of Biometrics & Emotion Recognition

AI Asia Pacific Institute Podcast

Today, we are welcoming Amba Kak and Shazeda Ahmed from the AI Now Institute: A research institute examining the social implications of artificial intelligence. Amba is currently Director of Global Policy & Programs at AI Now Institute at New York University where she develops and leads the Institute’s global policy engagement and partnerships, and is also a fellow at the NYU School of Law. Amba has over a decade of experience in the field of technology-related policy across multiple jurisdictions and has provided her expertise to government regulators, civil society organizations, and philanthropies. She is currently part of the Strategy Advisory Board of the Mozilla Foundation.
Shazeda is a doctoral candidate at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Information. She is a 2020-21 fellow in the Transatlantic Digital Debates at the Global Public Policy Institute. From 2019-20 she was a pre-doctoral fellow at two Stanford University research centers, the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) and the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). Shazeda has worked as a researcher for Upturn, the Mercator Institute for China Studies, Ranking Digital Rights, and the Citizen Lab. From 2018–19, she was a Fulbright fellow at Peking University's Law School in Beijing, where she conducted field research on how tech firms and the Chinese government are collaborating on the country's social credit system. Shazeda's work on the social inequalities that arise from state-firm tech partnerships in China has been featured in outlets including the Financial Times, WIRED, the South China Morning Post, Logic magazine, TechNode, The Verge, CNBC, Voice of America, and Tech in Asia.

This conversation covers the recent reports published by the AI Now Institute 'Regulating Biometrics: Global Approaches and Urgent Questions' and by Article 19 'Emotional Entanglement: China’s emotion recognition market and its implications for human rights'.

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