Facebook’s Civil Rights Audit • Who should decide whether this sensitive data should be collected? • What categories of data should private companies collect (if any)? • When is it appropriate to infer or estimate sensitive data about people for the purpose of testing for discrimination? • How should companies balance privacy and fairness goals? These questions are not unique to Facebook: they apply to any company or organization that has turned to machine learning, or otherwise uses quantitative techniques to measure or mitigate bias or discrimination. In some other industries laws, regulations, or regulatory guidance, and/or the collective efforts of industry members answer these questions and guide the process of collecting or estimating sensitive information to enable industry players and regulators to measure and monitor discrimination. Facebook asserts that for social media companies like it, answering these questions requires broad conversations with stakeholders and policymakers about how to chart a responsible path forward. Facebook states that it has already been working with the Partnership on AI to initiate multi-stakeholder conversations (to include civil rights experts) on this important topic, and plans to consult with a diverse group of stakeholders on how to make progress in this area. Facebook also reports that it is working to better understand the cutting edge work being done by companies like Airbnb and determine if similar initiatives are applicable and appropriate for companies that are the size and scale of Facebook. 4. Investing in the Diversity of the Facebook AI team. A key part of driving fairness in algorithms in ensuring companies are focused on increasing the diversity of the people working on and developing FB’s algorithms. Facebook reports that it has created a dedicated Task Force composed of employees in AI, Diversity and HR who are focused on increasing the number of underrepresented minorities and women in the AI organization and building an inclusive AI organization. The AI Task Force has led initiatives focused on increasing opportunities for members of underrepresented communities in AI. These initiatives include: (i) Co-teaching and funding a deep learning course at Georgia Tech. In this pilot program, Facebook developed, co-taught and led a 4 month program for 250+ graduate students with the aim to build a stronger pipeline of diverse candidates. Facebook states that its hope is that a subset of participating students will interview for future roles at Facebook. Facebook intends to scale this program to thousands of underrepresented students by building a consortium with 5-6 other universities, including minorityserving institutions. (ii) Northeastern’s Align Program. Facebook also recently provided funding for Northeastern University’s Align program, which is focused on creating pathways for non-computer science majors to switch over to a Master’s Degree in Computer Science, with the goal of increasing the pipeline of underrepresented minority and female students who earn degrees in Computer Science. Facebook reports that its funding enabled additional 80