Rumman Chowdhury, Global Lead for Ethical AI for Accenture, is in Washington D.C. this week to consult with the White House about the American AI Initiative that originated from an executive order by President Trump in February.
While in town, Chowdhury took time out of her schedule on Tuesday to attend a breakfast meeting with various outlets from the federal contracting space to share her thoughts on the ethics surrounding federal agencies that are implementing artificial intelligence.
During the meeting, Chowdhury said she considers herself a “Quantitative Social Scientist.†In her role with Accenture, Chowdhury attempts to understand the human components underneath the data. Avoiding bias and disposition from being embedded in an algorithm is an example of the impact Chowdhury can have on the implementation of AI in the U.S.
She can act like a “translator†between legal and technical minds, but her role is to “shore up†the knowledge gap because AI can be a complex world to understand. After speaking for an hour, the important message was that AI should be built from the ground up and offers untapped potential to improve human life in ways that are yet to be discovered by experts.
Chowdhury served as the managing director of Accenture AI since October 2018 and has served as the senior principal of AI for the company since January 2017. Prior to joining Accenture, Chowdhury served in various positions focusing on analytics, data and AI. She was a short-term consultant for the World Bank, the University of California Student Association, the Vera Institute of Justice and other organizations.
Chowdhury earned her bachelor’s of science degree in political science and management science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, her master’s of science in quantitative methods from Columbia University in New York City and a PhD in political science and government from the University of California, San Diego.
