Overview

The ACM Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT) conference is one of the academic research venues where data and computer scientists—often in dialogue with community organizers, advocates, and policy actors—forge best practices in AI ethics. Within the conference, critical scholars formed a dedicated track called “Critiquing and Rethinking Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency” (CRAFT) to build bridges from the conference to people who contend with computing systems from many different angles—from journalism and organizing, art and education, to advocacy and governance and beyond.

The CRAFT track presents a unique opportunity within an academic conference to center the impact of technology on communities and the policy implications that arise from that impact. Centering critique, reflection, and power will help to ground what is at stake in the research output of the conference, which largely features paper presentations from scholars in computer science, law, ethics, sociology, and other disciplines.

We are seeking session proposals from both academics and engaged practitioners in a diversity of fields to shape the terms by which we discuss, debate, regulate, limit and design these tools. Vital contributions to CRAFT in the past have included:

• A live workplace organizing roleplay by tech labor organizers Collective Action in Tech
• A deep dive on tech policy advocacy in India by the Centre for Internet & Society from Bangalore
• An art-oriented surveillance mapping exercise by the co-veillance collective
• Field reports from advocacy organizations like The Greenlining Institute and The American Civil Liberties Union.
• Community-led presentations on the interaction between predictive analytics and policing, work, and housing issues.

In the spirit of reflection and response, we invite academics of all disciplines; people in different communities of practice (community organizers, journalists, activists, advocates, educators, artists, public sector workers, etc.); and people directly impacted by such systems to apply to present at CRAFT, a program embedded in the ACM FAccT conference.

Please submit contributions in the form of workshops, panels, activities, unconferences, etc. to:

1. Creatively address critiques of the field of fairness, accountability and transparency in machine learning, data science and other forms of technology -- its gaps, omissions and possibilities;
2. Invite an interdisciplinary and cross-practice group of organizers, researchers, activists and artists to explore and inspire conversation and open future lines of research, collaboration and practice;
3. Push beyond the established boundaries of research and practice in the field.

In addition to contributions that explore the problem space in greater depth and from broader perspectives, we particularly encourage proposals that describe community- and advocacy-led solutions to the challenges that biased machine learning and other tools present.

Themes

Below we offer a set of themes as a starting point for CRAFT proposals; this list is not exhaustive.

• Addressing harms in the terms of local experiences and stories;
• Fostering community, collaboration, and engagement with people who are directly impacted by AI systems;
• Highlighting challenges in how AI ethics applies to activist, advocacy, policy, or other work;
• Power-mapping the state of play in corporate and government use of and regulation of AI;
• Interrogating emerging best practices, especially those forged at FAccT and taken up in policy settings;
• Critiquing or expanding FAccT and the larger field of AI Ethics, through dialogue with overlooked disciplinary approaches;
• Exploring democratic and community-led approaches to problem-selection, design and deployment of AI;
• Exploring positive visions of what AI would do in a liberated world via concrete or visionary mechanisms for positive change;
• Formulating artist- or educator-led responses to generative AI;
• Highlighting models and institutional forms that support more accountable use of data and technology, e.g. platform data access, worker data collectives.

Acceptance and travel support

We will accept approximately 15 presentations for in-person CRAFT sessions and approximately 5 online-only sessions.

Our goal is to provide funds that enable participation by organizers of all accepted CRAFT sessions. Accepted presenters will be able to submit via separate applications for travel funding support and for childcare/caregiver funding support, which will be allocated based on need and administered by the conference Financial Support Chairs.

Note that funds will be administered through reimbursement instead of in advance.

While this year’s conference will be in-person, applicants should explore avenues for supporting online participation and identify what their A/V needs would be to this end.

Guidelines for CRAFT Contributors

Session Formats for Contributions

In the spirit of openness, we welcome contributions in a variety of different formats. These may include, but are not limited to the following:

• Lightning talks
• Panels
• Poster and/or Demo Sessions
• Unconferences
• Site visits
• Interactive Workshops
• Art Exhibits or Other Artistic Interventions
• Dialogues across disciplines - e.g. policymakers, data scientists, historians, and advocates

Feel free to propose another format. We especially encourage proposals that feature or bring together people from different backgrounds, such as different disciplinary, epistemological or institutional orientations and bring new communities, movements, organizations, or positions to the conference.

Proposal Requirements

Submit your proposal via Google Forms. Your proposal should include sufficient information to evaluate it among other proposals.

• Proposed Title: Let us know what your session will be called.
• Format: Indicate and describe the kind of format you will use for your session. (E.g., Interactive Workshop, Panel, Debate, Unconference, Art Exhibit or Other Artistic Intervention, Site Visit, Poster and/or Demo Session, Lightning Talk, Other). Indicate here if the proposal is for an online-only session.
• Description: In approximately 250-450 words, describe the session topic and structure.
• Goals: What are you trying to achieve with your session? What do you want participants to know by the end of your session?
• Coordinator(s): Please indicate the name or names of session coordinators, including their titles, affiliations and contact information.
• Presenter/facilitator(s): If known, indicate the name or names of session presenters, including their titles and affiliations. If the program is still to be curated and you don’t know all the names of presenters, please say so.
• Length: Choose the appropriate time duration for your session. The proposed events can be 45 minutes, 1.5 hours, or 3 hours. 1.5 hours will be the default. This year we are also exploring whether to allow CRAFT sessions to link up with post-conference CRAFT workshops. If this would be of interest please indicate this under “Other”.
• Target Audience Size: Let us know how many people you anticipate coming to a session or how many participants you would ideally like to have.
• Online participation needs: Let us know what A/V and other support would be required to enable online participation in your session, or if you prefer the session to be in-person only.
• Other Needs (optional): Include a note if you have any special requirements for your session that are not addressed elsewhere.
• Additional Artifacts (optional): If you have additional materials which would support your proposal, such as a video example of the facilitation, a website or written workbooks, you can also include that in your proposal.

To submit your proposal, use this link: https://forms.gle/89RnEa4KE968m2q69

Note the Tutorials track:In addition to the CRAFT track, ACM FAccT also solicits proposals on the Tutorials track, which welcomes hands-on tutorials, translation tutorials and implications tutorials. If your proposal would be a better fit for that format, you can find more information here.

Evaluation Criteria for CRAFT Session Proposals

CRAFT submissions will be selected by the CRAFT chairs in consultation with the FAccT organizing committee, with selections made by quality and the need for a balanced and diverse program of interest to the FAccT community.

The review process will focus on three basic areas:

1. Planning and Quality: Is the proposal clear, sensible, and thorough?
2. Contribution and Relevance: Is the proposed session likely to generate new discussions within the conference and shift the debates in the field?
3. Broadening and Critique: Does the session feature voices and views that are not often represented in the main track of the conference?

CRAFT Co-Chairs

Please contact craft@facctconference.org for any questions.

• Jen Lee, ACLU of Washington
• Hannah Sassaman, People's Tech Project
• Meg Young, Data & Society Research Institute

Please contact craft@facctconference.org with any questions.