Ethiopian American AI scholar and computer scientist Dr. Timnit Gebru announces the launch of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research institute (DAIR). With $3.7 million in funding from several foundations, the independent, community-rooted institute aims to “counter Big Tech’s pervasive influence on the research, development and deployment of AI.” The announcement comes on the one-year anniversary of her sudden ouster from Google, where she co-led the Ethical AI team.