Towards Ethical NLP: On Class Disparities and Risks of Dual Use

Summary

Zeerak Talat, an independent scholar, gave a talk at MBZUAI on ethical concerns in NLP. The talk covered disparities in research on biases in NLP, performance differences based on socio-economic language variations, and risks of malicious reuse of NLP tools. Talat's research considers how machine learning interacts with and impacts societies through content moderation technologies. Why it matters: As NLP technologies become more integrated into society, understanding and addressing their potential harms and ethical implications is crucial for responsible development and deployment in the region and beyond.