OneZero_ is partnering with the Big Technology Podcast from Alex Kantrowitz to bring readers exclusive access to interview transcripts with notable figures in and around the tech industry._

This week, Kantrowitz sits down with Meredith Whittaker, an A.I. researcher who helped lead Google’s employee walkout in 2018. This interview, which took place at World Summit A.I, has been edited for length and clarity.

_To subscribe to the podcast and hear the interview for yourself, you can check it out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and _Overcast.

When I interviewed Tristan Harris about The Social Dilemma earlier this month, my mentions filled with people saying, “You should speak to the people who were critical of the social web long before the film.” One name stood out: MeredithWhittaker. An A.I. researcher and former Big Tech employee, Whittaker helped lead Google’s walkout in 2018 amid a season of activism inside the company. On this edition of the Big Technology Podcast, we spoke not only about her views on the film, but also of the future of workplace activism inside tech companies in a moment where some are questioning if it belongs at all.

Alex Kantrowitz: It seems like your perspective on The Social Dilemma is a little bit different from Tristan’s. Where do you think it went right and wrong?

**Meredith Whittaker: **One of the significant weaknesses with the film was that it sidelined a lot of the people who have been researching and calling out these issues in more nuanced ways for a very long time. There are folks like Safiya Noble, Sara Roberts. Ruha Benjamin. I’d look at Black women like I’Nasah Crockett and Sydette Harry, who were, in 2014 and before, calling out racist trolls that were germinated from message boards like 4Chan. There are a lot of people who actually have been looking at some of the issues that are produced and amplified through social platforms and the consolidation of power that is now represented in a handful of tech firms.

That was one of the primary issues, and along with that erasure, it erased some of the fundamental harm. The way in which a lot of these platforms and algorithmic systems reproduce and amplify histories of racism, histories of misogyny. Who bears the harm of this type of targeted harassment or the way in which algorithms represent our world, as Safiya Noble has [pointed out] so brilliantly. And who, frankly, reaps the benefits?

#activism #big-technology #tech #ai #social-media #big-data