As the technical lead on Jigsaw’s Conversation AI team, Lucy Vasserman is an expert on natural language and speech processing. Her research focuses on how computers can learn to understand the nuances and context of abusive language at scale, with an emphasis on combating algorithmic bias. The Conversation AI team applies this research to develop tools that address toxicity and reduce harassment. Most notably, Jigsaw has created an API called Perspective that uses machine learning to help make conversations online less toxic.
This talk will explore Jigsaw’s work to understand and reduce unintended bias in machine learning models. Lucy will discuss her team’s data gathering and annotation strategies as well as how the team has implemented new strategies for mitigating model bias to improve the effectiveness of their tools.
Lucy Vasserman is a manager and technical lead on Jigsaw's Conversation AI team, which studies how computers can learn to understand the nuances and context of abusive language at scale. Lucy works on machine learning research to improve the Conversation AI's core models, with a focus on combating algorithmic bias. She also collaborates with internal and external users to ensure the Conversation AI models capture their needs. Prior to joining Jigsaw, Lucy worked on machine learning research and engineering for several other Google teams including Speech Recognition and Google Shopping.
Lucy is passionate about computer science education. She spent the fall of 2015 teaching computer science full-time at Xavier University in New Orleans through the Google in Residence program, a partnership between Google and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She also serves on the Board of Advocates for Citizen Schools, a national non-profit that runs career-focused after school programming for low income middle schoolers.
Lucy received her B.A. in Computer Science from Pomona College in 2010. In her free time, Lucy enjoys scuba diving, dance, and, as a native New Yorker, all things New York.