Kathleen S.

I want to be understood when I speak. That is what language gives the dominant. #QuoteMe

Tidings from my time at the #Rise25 convening and awards. Thank you @mozilla for this recognition. 🥰🤩 Check out this youtube video where I speak about my work: youtube.com/watch?v=_4_xM1…

We have been busy this month @FAccTConference. We’ve released the Call for Papers - consider submitting your best work in fairness, interpretability, safety, trustworthiness and other topics in sociotechnical AI 🤩. facctconference.org/2025/cfp also see the new contributor Guides.

note to the African AI community

Join my lab! I’m currently recruiting new students (MSc & PhD) for admission in the fall of 2025 at @Mila_Quebec mila.quebec/en/prospective… Are you interested in multilingual NLP? I would encourage you to apply. Deadline: December 1

3 papers accepted at #EMNLP2024 1) YORÙLECT (Yoruba dialects) led by @orevaahia @aremuadeolajr arxiv.org/abs/2406.19564 2) MT Hallucination Detection led by @kenza_ily @gongas_laura arxiv.org/abs/2407.16470 3) MINERS led by @gentaiscool @ruochenz_ arxiv.org/abs/2406.07424

I’m looking for great recent/almost MSc graduates in NLP/Speech/Theoretical Deep Learning, who are interested in doing up to a 6 months/1 year position with me as research assistant. They would be hired by @DTU_Compute.

Workshop Day 1 at #DLI2024. So much being discussed on NLP, Data, Models and community. Take a look at this new Equitable License from @datalawafrica and @StrathCIPIT Nwulite Obodo Open Data License. link -> licensingafricandatasets.com #DLIndaba2024 @DeepIndaba @UPTuks

We are pleased to announce that Fiskani Banda, a graduate from the Data Science for Social Impact research group at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, has won the Deep Learning Indaba 2024 Alele-Williams Masters Award. dsfsi.github.io/blog/fiskani-m… @UPTuks @DeepIndaba

My #Mturk account was suspended because of apparent issues with my @amazonpay account, which has been fine since 2015. How can I still purchase on the website with the same payment info, which is problematic enough for @amazonmturk to suspend my account? That doesn't seem right.

There are 60 million Hausa in Nigeria and 14 million in Niger. Some are labeled Anglophones, while others are called Francophones. There are 6 million Ewe in Ghana and 3 million in Togo, with the former being referred to as Anglophones and the latter as Francophones. There are 48 million Yoruba in Nigeria and nearly 2 million in Benin, but they too are divided into Anglophones and Francophones. There are 12 million Akan in Ghana and 7 million in Côte d'Ivoire, yet some are labeled Anglophones, while others are called Francophones These people share the same languages, traditions, beliefs, and rituals, the same dietary habits, the same dress codes, and the same names. Yet, due to the few years they spend learning to speak a European language, which they use only 10% of the time, they are assigned a whole new political, cultural, and linguistic identity. They are given spaces for exchange, collaboration, and even so-called development programs based solely on a foreign language that most of them do not speak with their parents, neighbors, or colleagues. This is because the majority work in the informal sector, where the local language is often more commonly used. What purpose do these colonial identities really serve? None, other than ensuring the influence of colonial powers, who can claim that all these African states are their consumers and vassals. The very fact that we, as Africans, have accepted being labeled by others based on their language of domination is an insult to our intelligence. Anyone who identifies as a Francophone, Anglophone, or Lusophone African is a voluntary slave. Farida Bemba Nabourema

We're excited to launch Inkuba LM 4.0B, the first small language model for IsiZulu, Yoruba, Hausa, Swahili, and IsiXhosa. InkubaLM is specially designed to support African languages and promote linguistic diversity in AI. Try it out: lnkd.in/dA6aSPCf #InkubaLM

Hello! 👋 I'd like to share a work update I am proud of & recognize the 8 universities I've supported over the last year in my work @mozilla 1000+ students, 40+ faculty, and 26M KES in grant funding later, here's to adding value to Kenya's tech ecosystem, a step at a time. 🧵

🪘DLI 2024 Workshops Announcement🪘 We are proud to present the list of our full-day workshops ! This year's line-up of workshops is a reflection of our amazing AI African community and it is closely aligned with the mission of the Deep Learning Indaba. Explore the different workshop details on our website 👉bit.ly/DLIWorkshops20…

#ICML2024 has kicked off in Vienna, Austria. I will be giving my invited talk tomorrow at 930 AM. I will touch on @DSFSI_Research at @UPTuks, @LelapaAI @MasakhaneNLP , @DeepIndaba and more as I reflect on #AfricanNLP and #AfricaML

Well, its official. I have now signed up to write a WHOLE BOOK 😲 I am equal parts excited and terrified. But I couldn't ask for a better team than my agents Sarah, Katherine, and Anna, and editors Alessandra and Leo. I guess I better get to work now!

as part of this year's African Computer Vision Summer School in Nairobi, I run a 3hr workshop this morning on how CV research powers surveillance AI. we got real (& uncomfortable) & was glad to see these set of tasks in particular sparked heated debates amongst vision researchers

Honoured & excited to give an invited keynote at #ICML2024 in Vienna, Austria next Wednesday 24/07 Gondzo - Charting a Path for African Low-Resource Languages: A Multifaceted Approach to Research and Development icml.cc/virtual/2024/i… @icmlconf @uptuks @dsfsi_research @LelapaAI