google deepmind
Empowering tomorrow’s AI creators
To ensure Artificial Intelligence benefits all of humanity, it needs to include diverse values and concerns in its creation. DeepMind’s long-running global scholarship programme aims to bring more new perspectives from underrepresented groups into AI. But this can be a daunting industry to join, especially if you’ve never seen anyone like yourself in it.
Underrepresented groups are often expected to fit into an established paradigm, but our strategy led to a key cultural insight — what if we asked them to ‘come as they are’? This is especially crucial for AI as unique points-of-view and interests will drive its development into a truly representative technology.
This was articulated as: ‘AI by you,’ a simple phrase that asks potential applicants to see themselves as future authors and owners of AI. With those three words, what started off as a brief about celebrating the scholarship programme, grew into an integrated campaign about representation in AI.
Resulted in: 167% monthly increase in page views, 40% annual increase in page views, highly positive sentiment ranging from 92.4% to 96.5%, and a 183% increase in scholarship applications.
Manifesto film
Scholarship Series
Weronika
Vitor
Julia
Arnol
Sneha
Expressed through an evocative manifesto film, a series of mixed-media scholar stories, social content (across YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram), posters and the scholarship website itself — ‘AI by you’ is a clarion call to the next generation of AI creators to join in and make their mark.