Tentative Schedule

10:00 AM - 10:30 AM OPENING TALK - Introduction to Queer in AI

10:30 AM - 11:00 AM SPEAKER: Designing Technology for Gender Transition - Tee Chuanromanee

Tee Chuanromanee is a researcher focusing on using technology to support gender transition and investigating the ways that normative transition narratives are embedded into technology. They received their PhD in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. Deeply involved in LGBTQ HCI community, they served as an organizer for the CHI 2021 Special Interest Group for Queer in HCI and co-organizer for the Trans/Queer in HCI Mentoring Program from 2021-2023. They are presently a Human Factors Engineer at Southwest Airlines in Dallas, Texas, working to improve procedures and safety for airline employees.

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PANEL: Queer Creative Storytelling - Ashrita Kumar, Léa Demeule, Dr. Theresa Jean Tanenbaum

Ashrita Kumar (they/them) is an artist, activist and lead singer of the Baltimore-based punk band Pinkshift.’

Léa Demeule is a PhD student in Artificial Intelligence at Mila and University of Montreal; she is also an interdisciplinary artist. Her academic research explores fundamental questions in the interplay between discrete and continuous neural representations. She aims to develop methods that promote more careful use of computational resources and serve a socially beneficial purpose. Her art spans visual media, auditory media, web media and interactive media. Léa is especially interested in leveraging her position to curiously and critically engage with artificial intelligence and its ramifications.

Dr. Theresa Jean Tanenbaum (“Tess” – she/fae) is a songwriter, scholar, speaker, poet, performer, storyteller, game designer, artist, activist, and practicing witch. Fae recently left a tenured position as an Associate Professor in the Department of Informatics at UC Irvine where she was a founding member of the Transformative Play Lab. Her most recent book on Playful Wearable Technologies, co-authored with Katherine Isbister, Elena Marquez-Segura, Ella Dagan, and Oguz Burak, was released by The MIT Press in early 2024. Her most recent album, Emotional Regulation, released under the artist name Moth Mother in October 2024, was written in response to the proliferation of anti-LGBTQ+ policies around the globe. Tess’s current work is informed by faer intersecting identities as a queer, Jewish, polyamorous, disabled, neurodivergent, transgender woman, living in the rural Midwest where she owns and operates Moth Mother Studios. On any given day fae might be found writing (music, poetry, games, speculative fiction, memoir, or scholarship), working with faer hands, caring for animals, throwing pots, practicing circus arts, or hanging spooky mobiles from tree branches in her woods. Having cut herself free from the institutional demands of academia she is increasingly disinterested in boundaries, boxes, or categories when it comes to what she creates. The project currently animating faer is The Transition Diary: an autobiographical musical that fae wrote about marriage, gender transition, and self-discovery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her forthcoming game, Alchemist's Ink, is a handcrafted boutique analog gaming experience for four players that combines ritual, gameplay, theater, and narrative. Players draw magical tattoos on themselves and each other using a black walnut ink that she brewed on the winter solstice out of nuts that she foraged from her land. Dr. Tanenbaum has been instrumental in helping create new, more inclusive, policies within the academic publishing world that make it possible for people to correct their names on previously published scholarship. In 2020 she co- founded the Name Change Policy Working Group to support other transgender people in advocating for inclusive identity policies within publishing and beyond. She has worked with Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the ACM, SAGE, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Elsevier, and many other publishers to develop identity practices in publishing that safeguard the privacy of transgender authors seeking to update their scholarly records to reflect their correct names. Although she is no longer at UC Irvine she continues to write, publish, and speak on her areas of scholarship. She will be returning to the classroom this Spring as an Instructional Assistant Professor at Illinois State University in the School of Creative Technologies.

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM BREAK: lunch time!

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM PANEL: Participatory AI and Data Governance - A. Feder Cooper, Anaelia Ovalle, Bernardo Fico, Irene Solaiman, Serena Oduro

A. Feder Cooper - I am a co-founder of the GenLaw Center and future professor of computer science at Yale (starting 2026). Until then, I am a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research and a postdoctoral affiliate at Stanford. I work on reliable measurement and evaluation of machine learning systems. My contributions span uncertainty estimation, privacy and security of generative-AI systems, distributed training, hyperparameter optimization, and model selection. I also do work in tech policy and law, and spend a lot of time finding ways to effectively communicate the capabilities and limits of AI/ML to interdisciplinary audiences and the public.

Anaelia (Elia) Ovalle is a recent addition to the AI & Society team at Meta FAIR and CS PhD graduate from UCLA, where they studied inclusive NLP and AI ethics advised by Prof. Kai-Wei Chang. Elia's research bridges algorithmic fairness with critical social theory to address AI-driven sociotechnical harms. Through their work, they uncovered 1) mechanisms by which gender-diverse biases are systematically encoded in language models (both pretrained and preference-finetuned LLMs) and 2) technical design choices which can encode real-world social harms. They have also contributed to AI Policy for Gender Equality and Diversity with the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) and co-led three workshops at ACM FAccT, centering community participation to explore how tensions between AI development and collective practices can be navigated to preserve human connection and address community needs.

Bernardo Fico has a Bachelor's in Law from the University of São Paulo, a Master's degree in International Human Rights Law from the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law (USA), a specialist in Digital Law from UERJ, certified by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), and a researcher in the areas of technology and human rights. His also holds concentration and improvement courses in Data Protection (FGV-SP), Digital Law Practice (FGV-SP), Media Policy (Annenberg-Oxford), International Law (OAS), Human Rights (Stanford) and (Luzern), LGBTQIAP+ Rights (Clacso). In addition to his training in technology, Bernardo has extensive international experience, particularly with human rights and diversity, having worked at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights advising on the drafting of sentences and provisional measures, in addition to his work at the International Lesbian and Gay Associatiation (ILGA) and at Bluhm Legal Clinic defending social minorities with a focus on strategic litigation in international forums such as the United Nations.

Irene Solaiman is an AI safety and policy expert. She is Head of Global Policy at Hugging Face, where she is conducting social impact research and leading public policy. Irene serves on the Partnership on AI's Policy Steering Committee, the Center for Democracy and Technology's AI Governance Lab Advisory Committee, and Aspen Digital's AI Elections Advisory Council. Irene advises responsible AI initiatives at OECD and IEEE. Her research includes AI value alignment, responsible releases, and combating misuse and malicious use. Irene was recently named and was named MIT Tech Review's 35 Innovators Under 35 2023 for her research.

Serena Oduro’s work as a senior policy analyst at Data & Society is driven by her dedication to realizing an AI ecosystem that truly benefits us all. Serena leads and manages Data & Society’s involvement in NIST’s US AI Safety Institute and other projects that advance a sociotechnical and rights-forward approach to AI governance. Previously, Serena was a technology equity fellow at The Greenlining Institute, where she provided key support for Greenlining’s sponsorship of the Automated Decision Systems Accountability Act of 2021. Analyzing and reconstructing the AI ecosystem from a Black feminist lens are also passions of Serena, and her work on this can be found in the AI Now Institute's A New AI Lexicon series and in the book Fake AI published by Meatspace Press.

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Co-working Session #1: Participatory AI and Data Governance

3:00 PM - 3:30 PM Sponsor Booth Networking Session

3:30 PM - 4:30 PM Co-working Session #2: Participatory AI and Data Governance

4:30 PM - 4:45 PM SPEAKER: Queer Producing in Latin America - Be Zilberman

A presentation exploring artistic and tech projects designed by and for the queer community in Brazil and Latin America, highlighting the intersection of creativity, innovation, and activism within queer spaces.

Be Zilberman is a non-binary, neurodivergent, and disabled multi-artist. Founder of Purpurina Films and Productions, which produces films, shows, and festivals aimed at LGBTQIA+ and disabled audiences. They hold a degree in Audiovisual Arts from the University of São Paulo and recently completed a Master's in Documentary Filmmaking at Goldsmiths, University of London. Currently, Be is finishing a second degree in Computer Science, also at the University of São Paulo, with a focus on AI and diversity.

4:45 PM - 5:00 PM Closing Remarks