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I wrote "The Discomfort of Death Counts" for Cell's data science journal @Patterns_CP, for their series on COVID-19 & data.

I thought I would be analyzing figures - but I didn’t. Instead, it's about seeing data as humans so we can properly mourn them. 💔

cell.com/patterns/fullt…
We watch death counts on dashboards so passively, losing complete sight of who is actually in there. It completely distorts our understanding of the actual cost of the pandemic.

Thanks to @mathbabedotorg for help with editing & @TessaDarbyshire for just letting me go with it❤️
+ Much thanks to @theodorajewell who led this research group discussion once that gave me the confidence to recognize my reflections on this topic as interesting and valid, whatever that means.

+@mer__edith for just always being patient & nice as I continue to process things.
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Deb Raji
@rajiinio
If you are a reporter, DON'T YOU DARE report on Amazon's decision today without acknowledging the literal hell advocates went through for even this small step to happen.

If you named us when Amazon was being defensive & dismissive then you need to name us now.
@ACLU has been campaigning against Amazon's sale of facial rec to the police for YEARS. Me & @jovialjoy audited their tech demonstrating clearly biased performance. They tried to discredit us, deny our results. They even shut down a shareholder vote.

media.mit.edu/publications/a…
More context on that whole saga here:

This struggle and resistance MUST be part of the story of whatever comes next.

Just look at how many words they dedicate to being defensive vs. this announcement:

aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-…

blog.aboutamazon.com/policy/we-are-…
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Deb Raji
@rajiinio
Starting to notice a trend - the "Tech Savior Complex". This is not to be confused with Techno-solutionism.

It’s one thing to think tech is the answer, its another and perhaps more unsettling thing to think that the technologist holds all the answers (technical or not).
When AI researchers think that only they can save society from its technical harms, they will attempt to reinvent or naively play the social scientist to do so.

Why? There’s entire fields dedicated to thinking about these problems decades longer than this community’s existence.
Valuing our perspective over others is counter-productive. Moving beyond an appropriate scope of influence will require actual collaboration and/or retraining in social science. Ofc @ruchowdh already noticed this and has written thoughtfully about it here: wired.com/story/tech-nee…
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