Stephanie Dinkins

Stephanie Dinkins is a transmedia artist and Professor holding the Kusama Endowed Chair in Art at Stony Brook University. Recognized as one of TIME magazine's '100 Most Influential People in AI,' she creates projects that foster dialog about race, gender, aging, and our future histories through the lens of emerging technologies. Her work centers on developing technological ecosystems based on care and social equity, challenging the biases embedded in artificial intelligence systems.

Dinkins' research interests focus on the intersection of art, technology, and social justice, particularly examining how algorithmic systems perpetuate racial and gender biases. Her artistic practice employs documentary methods and social collaboration to create inclusive platforms that push the boundaries of new media and socially engaged art. She developed the theoretical framework 'Afro-now-ism,' which challenges the notion that Black experiences must be tied to historical trauma or speculative futures, advocating instead for the possibility of joy and self-defined success in the present.

Her recent publications reveal a consistent focus on community-centered AI development, algorithmic justice, and the cultural implications of emerging technologies. Dinkins' work demonstrates how AI systems often fail to account for cultural diversity, as seen in her exploration of how wedding dress recognition algorithms default to Western white dresses while ignoring variations like Indian saris or Ghanaian dresses.

• TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People in AI (2023)
• Inaugural LG Guggenheim Award for artists at the intersection of art and technology
• Creative Time R&D Fellow
• Schmidt Futures AI2050 Senior Fellow (2023)

Dinkins leads community initiatives like AI.Assembly, which creates spaces for marginalized communities to engage with emerging technologies through relationship-building rather than predetermined outcomes. Her project 'Not The Only One' (N'TOO) represents a groundbreaking approach to AI development, using small data from three generations of Black women in her family to create a chatbot that intentionally resists 'fixing' to meet mainstream expectations, thereby highlighting the limitations of biased training data. She also developed 'Secret Garden,' an immersive web experience that emerged from collaborative community processes. Dinkins' work emphasizes that technology is never neutral but always reflects the cultural assumptions of its creators, advocating for more diverse voices in technological development.