🚨BREAKING:
She fled a war zone at 15.
Then she proved AI couldn't recognize Black women's faces — and Google fired her for it.
Timnit Gebru grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Her father, an electrical engineer, died when she was 5.
Her mother raised her alone.
At 15, war broke out.
Her family was deported. Forced to fight.
She fled to Ireland. Then applied for asylum in the U.S.
"It was miserable."
She landed in Massachusetts as a refugee.
Started high school knowing almost no one.
Some teachers refused to let her take AP classes. They didn't think an African refugee could be a top student.
She proved them wrong.
She got into Stanford.
Earned her PhD under Fei-Fei Li, the "AI Godmother."
Then joined Google to co-lead their Ethical AI team.
She did the work no one wanted to do.
She proved facial recognition failed Black women 35% of the time.
She exposed bias hidden in the algorithms.
Then she co-wrote a paper on the dangers of large language models.
Google told her to remove her name.
She refused.
They fired her. By email. While she was on vacation.
2,700 Google employees signed a letter in protest.
Congress demanded answers.
She didn't go quiet.
She built something new.
Today?
↳ Founder of DAIR: an independent AI research institute
↳ TIME's 100 Most Influential People
↳ Fortune's 50 Greatest Leaders
↳ Co-founder of Black in AI
"I'm not worried about machines taking over the world. I'm worried about groupthink and arrogance in the AI community."
She didn't shrink to make them comfortable.
She told the truth — even when it cost her.
To drive much needed change.
