Allison Cohen

There is a problematic and yet ubiquitous phenomena in the field of AI research and product development: we’re too late to ask ourselves whether the algorithms we’ve been developing are built for purpose. Why? Because we’ve been misinterpreting “fit for purpose” to mean technically feasible. This definition obscures considerations of equal importance including the cultural, social, political and legal landscape that permeate the tool’s design and determine the tool’s utility.

When building AI products, researchers are only confronted with questions of multidisciplinary reflection as they’re about to submit a paper or launch their tool. However, at this point in the project, a host of relevant decisions have already been made, whether consciously or not, that influence the algorithms’ utility. These decisions begin before the algorithm has ever been trained or the data has ever been collected.

In this talk, I will discuss important points of inflection that are too often missed in the product development lifecycle. These inflection points present opportunities for AI researchers and product developers to ensure that the technology they’re building is fit for purpose.

Allison Cohen is a Senior Applied AI Projects Manager within Mila’s AI for Humanity team. In this role, Allison works closely with AI researchers, social science experts and external partners to professionalize and deploy socially beneficial AI projects. In this role, she has successfully delivered an LLM search engine for the OECD and a multi-modal misogyny dataset, which obtained a Spotlight recognition at NeurIPS. Allison was on InspiredMinds! Top 50 Influential Women in AI list and was the Runner Up for the Women in AI “Leader of the Year” Award in the category of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. She holds an MA in Global Affairs from the University of Toronto and a BA in International Development from McGill University.