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Hosting Our First-Ever Product Equity Summit
June 5, 2024
Workstream
Topic
- Inclusion
- Product Equity
- Technology
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EmailLast month, Aspen Digital’s Tech Accountability Coalition held its first ever Product Equity Summit in Washington, DC. This first-of-its-kind gathering brought together nearly 100 senior tech leaders, civil society experts, and community advocates to take a critical look at how innovative products are built from the ground up… and who they actually benefit. Throughout the two and half days of diverse programming and intensive working meetings, one overarching theme remained constant: our future will only be brighter if it’s built for and by all.
Highlights of the Summit included:
Opening with a powerful fireside chat between Adobe’s Director of Product Timothy “TB” Bardlavens and equitable design advocate and pioneer Antoinette Carroll.
A discussion on the critical intersection of elections, AI, and impact on marginalized communities.
Sessions led by members of our Product Equity Working Group on topics including:
- Inclusive red-teaming of Generative AI: tech leaders and equity advocates discussed how red-teaming practices (i.e. the usually internal stress-testing of new products before launch) can and should be expanded to include a broader range of impacted communities, especially when it comes to AI-driven products
- Defining and setting collective standards: the Working Group presented their progress on developing shared definitions, metrics, and goals for how companies across the tech industry should incorporate product equity and measure meaningful progress towards more inclusive innovation
- Towards algorithmic fairness: Working Group members shared insights on how the most prevalent AI-driven applications do and do not take into account data from marginalized population groups in the training of large language models (LLMs) and how that can have unintended second order effects on underrepresented communities.
“If your product doesn’t work predictably for everyone, then it is broken.“
Attendees after the event shared feedback that the Product Equity Summit felt like a truly unique convening with a focus and diversity of attendance that is often hard to find. As a direct result of the convening and the ongoing work of the Product Equity Working Group, Aspen Digital will launch several in-depth insights and playbooks around this emerging field throughout the summer, fall, and end of the year.
Stay tuned!
Zaki Barzinji
Senior Director
Zaki Barzinji is a Senior Director for Aspen Digital, where he oversees a range of projects at the intersection of tech, policy, equity, and justice for underrepresented communities.
Zaki is a public affairs leader with a decade of experience in political campaigns, public service, and policy change at the state and federal level. He served in the White House as Senior Associate Director of Public Engagement and President Obama’s liaison to Arab-Americans, Muslims, Sikhs, and other minority faiths, where he worked to amplify voices and narratives seldom represented at the highest levels of government.
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