Tess Posner

Tess Posner is an American social entrepreneur and musician best known for her work in artificial intelligence advocacy and ethics, focusing on increasing equity and inclusion in technology.[1]

Tess Posner
Known forArtificial Intelligence
AI Ethics
Diversity in Technology
Academic background
Alma materColumbia University (M.A.)
Saint John's College (B.A.)
Academic work
InstitutionsAI4ALL

Posner headed several initiatives to promote diversity in technology before being hired as the CEO of non-profit organization AI4ALL, a position from which she stepped down in 2021 to concentrate on her music career.[2][3][4] Her work has earned recognition including her selection as one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics in 2020.[5]

Early years and education

Posner grew up near Boston, Massachusetts. In high school, she traveled to El Salvador to build houses with Habitat for Humanity following an earthquake. Posner holds a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy and Mathematics from Saint John's College and a Master's degree from Columbia University in Social Enterprise Administration.[6]

Career

Social entrepreneurship

Early in her career, Posner built and ran Samsa School, a non-profit organization providing low-income people worldwide with tools and education to find work in the digital economy. Then, she became the managing director of TechHire at Opportunity@Work, a White House initiative that sought to increase diversity in the technology industry.[7] In 2016, Posner was selected as a fellow at the Institute for the Future.[8]

Posner then joined non-profit organization AI4ALL as their CEO and executive director.[9][10] AI4ALL provides AI education and mentorship particularly towards historically underrepresented talent.[2][11][4] In the years she served as CEO, AI4ALL saw over 15,000 young people participate in the organization's AI education and mentorship programs.[12] Posner has spoken at SXSW, Grace Hopper Celebration, Nvidia GPU Technology Conference, and further conferences about artificial intelligence and technology diversity and outreach.[13][14][15]

She is listed as a coauthor in Vint Cerf and David Nordfors's 2018 book The People Centered Economy: The New Ecosystem for Work.[16]

In an online statement published in October 2021, Posner announced that she would step out of the role as CEO of AI4ALL into an advisory role to pursue her music career full-time.[3] Emily Reid took over her role at the start of 2022 as interim CEO.[17]

Music

Posner is also an alt-pop music artist. She released her first EP in 2018 and released new singles in 2020.[18][19]

Selected awards and recognition
  • 2019 – VentureBeat Women in AI Award: Responsibility and Ethics Winner[20]
  • 2019 – Alconics Awards AI Innovator of the Year Finalist[21]
  • 2020 – 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics Hall of Fame Honoree[5]

References
  1. "AI Isn't Good for Women — But We Can Fix It". Teen Vogue. April 4, 2018. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  2. Wong, Ashley. "Artificial intelligence has a racial bias problem. Google is funding summer camps to try to change that". USA TODAY. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
  3. Team, AI4ALL (November 3, 2021). "Singing A New Song". AI4ALL. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  4. Smiley, Lauren (May 23, 2018). "The Future of AI Depends on High-School Girls". The Atlantic. Retrieved January 19, 2022. They hired Tess Posner, who had led initiatives aimed at getting more diversity into the digital economy, to be the CEO.
  5. "Hall of Fame". 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics™. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  6. "Tess Posner inspires and trains diverse AI talent". Accelerate with Google. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  7. "AI in Medicine: Inclusion & Equity". Stanford University. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  8. "IFTF: Tess Posner". www.iftf.org. Retrieved September 17, 2021.
  9. Castellanos, Sara (August 10, 2020). "The Changes AI Will Bring". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  10. "A Rare Tech Company Where Women Dominate". Fortune. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
  11. Walch, Kathleen. "Concerns Of AI And Bias Insights from AI4ALL's Tess Posner". Forbes. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
  12. "Miami Dade College Partners with AI4ALL College Pathways Initiative to Prepare Students for Careers in Artificial Intelligence". MDC News. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  13. "Understanding the Human Side of Automation". SXSW. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  14. Lindeman, Laura (September 26, 2019). "10 Talks We Can't Wait to Hear at the 2019 Grace Hopper Celebration". Medium. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  15. Stewart, Louis (October 15, 2020). "At GTC, Leaders Focus on Equity in AI, Developer Diversity | NVIDIA Blog". The Official NVIDIA Blog. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  16. Cerf, Vint; Nordfors, David (2018). The People Centered Economy: The New Ecosystem for Work. ISBN 978-1729145920.
  17. Team, AI4ALL (December 14, 2021). "Emily Reid Named Interim CEO of AI4ALL". AI4ALL. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  18. "Interview: Tess Posner". Tongue Tied Magazine. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
  19. FeaturesMusic· (February 21, 2020). "Tess Posner Shines On Catchy New Single "Ocean"". DNü. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  20. "Winners of VentureBeat's first Women in AI Awards announced at Transform 2019". VentureBeat. July 12, 2019. Retrieved September 17, 2021.
  21. "AIconics Awards San Francisco 2019: Shortlist announced". AI Business. Retrieved September 17, 2021.
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