12 Conferences Related to Responsible Data Science and AI

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Attending conferences is a great way to learn about a research space, meet researchers with similar interests, and spark new ideas. Here are some conferences to check out related to responsible data science and AI. This umbrella is large and includes topics related to ethics, fairness, antiracism, and bias in data science and AI. Conferences are sorted by date relative to publication of this blog post.

Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS)

• Next Date: November 26 — December 4, 2022 (New Orleans, LA, USA)
• Summary: Now in its 36th year, the conference is described as, “a multi-track interdisciplinary annual meeting that includes invited talks, demonstrations, symposia, and oral and poster presentations of refereed papers.” Fairness, bias, ethics, and explainability are explored in conference papers and workshops. The 2022 iteration includes a workshop titled Algorithmic Fairness through the Lens of Causality and Privacy.

International Conference on Big Data

• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Next Date: December 17–20, 2022 (Osaka, Japan)
• Summary: Described as “the top tier research conference in Big Data”, this conference series was established in 2013 and includes themes related to big data infrastructure, management, and search. Past conferences have included topics related to fairness and responsible data science. For 2022, the conference has added the inaugural International Workshop on Responsible AI and Data Ethics (RAIDE).

Conference on Artificial Intelligence

• Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)
• Next Date: February 7–14, 2023 (Washington, DC, USA)
• Summary: The described purpose of the Conference on Artificial Intelligence is, “to promote research in artificial intelligence (AI) and scientific exchange among AI researchers, practitioners, scientists, and engineers in affiliated disciplines.” The 36th iteration of the conference in 2022 included sessions on fairness, explainable AI, and addressing bias. This conference has a number of collaboration options, including workshops, doctoral and undergraduate consortiums, and the cross-disciplinary Bridge project.

European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR)

• Next Date: April 2–6, 2023 (Dublin, Ireland)
• Summary: This conference is, “the annual premier European forum for the presentation of new research results in the broadly conceived area of Information Retrieval”. This includes a track published as Advances in Fairness and Bias in Information Retrieval. The conference will host an ongoing workshop titled Algorithmic Bias in Search and Recommendation that will be hosted for the fourth iteration in 2023. The conference has a doctoral consortium, tutorials, and workshops.

Open Data Science Conference (ODSC)

• Next Date: May 9–11, 2023 (Boston, MA, USA)
• Summary: ODSC is a large data science conference with over 6000 attendees in 2022 from a variety of industries. The conference includes both training sessions and workshops. ODSC has a Responsible AI track including topics related to AI ethics, bias, and explainable AI.

Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT)

• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Next Date: TBD, likely June 2023 in US (likely Chicago & Hybrid)
• Summary: One of the major conferences in the fairness space, this conference is described as, “A computer science conference with a cross-disciplinary focus that brings together researchers and practitioners interested in fairness, accountability, and transparency in socio-technical systems”. The 2022 conference spanned a wide variety of topics, from hate speech detection to fairness in rank search to implications for policy and law. The conference has a doctoral consortium and encourages collaboration and interaction through CRAFT and tutorial tracks.

Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR)

• Computer Vision Foundation (CVF) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Next Date: TBD, likely June 2023
• Summary: The premier annual computer vision event highlights advances in computer vision in research and industry. Workshops in 2022 included the Third Workshop on Fair, Data-Efficient, and Trusted Computer Vision (TCV 2022), Ethical Considerations in Creative Applications of Computer Vision, and Workshop on Explainable Artificial Intelligence for Computer Vision (XAI4CV). Conference programming includes workshops, tutorials, and a doctoral consortium.

International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML)

• Next Date: July 23–29, 2023 (Honolulu, HI)
• Summary: ICML is globally renowned for gathering professionals dedicated to cutting-edge research in machine learning and related areas, including artificial intelligence, statistics, and data science. Application areas include machine vision, computational biology, speech recognition, and robotics. Trustworthy Machine Learning, including accountability, causality, fairness, privacy, and robustness, was a topic of interest in 2022. Socially Responsible Machine Learning was a 2022 ICML workshop. This large conference includes tutorials, workshops, and expo demonstrations.

Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society (AIES)

• Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Next Date: TBD, likely August 2023
• Summary: This conference convened its fifth gathering in 2022 and attracted submissions from around the globe. Early iterations of this conference served as calls to action for AI ethics; more recently, the conference has focused on developing new goals, models, and technical and regulatory systems to shape AI that is already in use. The conference schedule has historically included both lightning talks and invited speakers, as well as a student poster session.

Knowledge, Discovery, and Data Mining (KDD)

• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Next Date: TBD, likely August 2023
• Summary: KDD is a well-known data science conference with both Research and Applied Science track options. The focus of the conference includes all aspects of the data science lifecycle from data cleaning and preparation to inference and dissemination. Specific tracks have included explainability and technical data science contributions that advance United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2022, the conference offered a Trustworthy AI day. Conference programming has previously included an undergraduate consortium, hands on and lecture tutorials, and workshops.

Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM)

• Hosted by the American Statistical Association (ASA)
• Next Date: August 5–10, 2023 (Toronto, Canada)
• Summary: The largest gathering of statisticians in North America, JSM offers an opportunity for, “statisticians in academia, industry, and government to exchange ideas and explore opportunities for collaboration.” Topics range from statistical applications to methodology and theory and extend to analytics and data science. The 2022 conference included a course on fairness in data science for epidemiology, as well as topics related to antiracism, ethics, and responsibility in statistics and data science.

Conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization (EAAMO)

• Hosted by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Next Date: TBD, maybe October 2023
• Summary: EEAMO wrapped up its second conference in 2022, where it aimed to, “highlight work where techniques from algorithms, optimization, and mechanism design, along with insights from the social sciences and humanistic studies, can help improve equity and access to opportunity for historically disadvantaged and underserved communities.” This conference seeks to bring together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from both government and non-governmental organizations. This conference has a doctoral consortium.

Staying Up to Date on Conferences

This resource is a great tool to keep track of important dates for these conferences.

Which conferences am I missing? Feel free to share in the comments.

This blog post is part of a Deep Dive into Responsible Data Science and AI series.

Disclaimer: Support for this blog series was provided by RTI International. The opinions expressed by the author are their own and do not represent the position or belief of RTI International. Material in this blog post series may be used for educational purposes. All other uses including reprinting, modifying, and publishing must obtain written consent.