ETHICS-2025 Plenary 2: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Data Equity and Responsible AI Design

Prof. Lai-Tze Fan's plenary session address will focus on her work at the University of Waterloo as Director of The U&AI Lab, which uses research-creation methods for enhanced EDI (equity, diversity, inclusion) outcomes in AI design. In particular, she will showcase how interdisciplinary approaches (such as storytelling in combination with dataset creation initiatives) can be used as tools for advancing EDI and social justice principles in digital spaces. Her talk will center on a case study related to facial recognition AI and her lab's efforts to develop ethical methods for enhancing the racial diversity of datasets available to product designers working in this space.