Looking to learn more about or engage with Mozilla Fellows and Awardees around the world? Keep your eye on the Mozilla Foundation blog to stay up-to-date with regular updates about these leaders and their work by reviewing the current and upcoming news and announcements below.

AI and internet health

News from current fellows and awardees

• Kenya's hidden political influencers - featuring fellow Brian Obilo in The Star
• Kenya's Threat to Ban Facebook Could Backfire - featuring fellow Odanga Madung in WIRED
• Kathleen Siminyu, a machine learning fellow at Mozilla on what it takes to become a data scientist - featuring fellow Kathleen Siminyu in Hapa Kenya
• Disinformation in the Kenyan election | The Listening Post Feature - featuring fellow Odanga Madung in Aljazeera
• Stanford AI experts call BS on claims that Google’s LaMDA chatbot is sentient - featuring fellow Abeba Birhane in TekCrispy
• How online hate speech keeps people from voting - featuring fellow Odanga Madung in Der Spiegel
• Facebook, TikTok and fake news play key role in Kenyan elections: Millions to vote today after ugly online campaigns - featuring fellow Odanga Madung in City AM
• TikTok Is ‘Shadow-Promoting’ Banned Content in Russia - featuring Mozilla Technology Fund awardee Marc Faddoul in WIRED and Le Monde
• An election about nothing': Kenya's Election - featuring fellow Odanga Madung in ABC
• On TikTok, Election Misinformation Thrives Ahead of Midterms - featuring fellow Odanga Madung in New York Times
• Western Vocal Drag and the Cyborg’s Prosody: Decolonizing Assistive Audio Technology - featuring Dorothy R Santos in C/Change podcast
• OnlyBans Allows Users to Understand the Realities of Digital Sex Work - featuring CMA awardee Lena Chen in HyperAllergic

Fellowship and Awardee Alumni News

• Tech industry’s critical policy issues likely tabled as Congress heads for recess - featuring alum Gigi Sohn in CNBC
• AI researcher: Why AI hype is hot air and damaging the entire industry - featuring alum Frederike Kaltheuner in Business Insider
• The Risks That Come With Public Venmo Transactions, Emojis and More - featuring CMA alum Hang Do Thi Duc in Go Banking Rates and Yahoo News
• Facial recognition: UK plans to monitor migrant offenders are unethical – and they won’t work - featuring alum Namrata Primlani in The Conversation

Program Updates

• Mozilla’s Responsible Computer Science Challenge Will Expand to Kenya and India
  • Applications for a Responsible Computer Science Challenge Fellow (Kenya) are already open!
• Common Voice has awarded eight projects each USD $50,000, leveraging the Kiswahili language and voice technology to increase social and economic opportunities for marginalized groups in Kenya, Tanzania, and the Kiswahili-speaking Democratic Republic of Congo. Learn more here.
• The Data Futures Lab welcomed two new Program Officers: Lisa Gutermuth based in Berlin and Miguel Morachimo based in Toronto.
• During the week of 5 September, we held our first in person meeting for the Tech and Society Fellowship program in Berlin. The program launched two years ago and will come to a close this month, our first cohort to have navigated these last two difficult years of pandemic. It was a week filled with conversation, learning and reflection, and just a little bit of fun. We’re publishing a series of profiles on the Tech and Society Fellows, the first of which include Brian Obilo, Tarcizio Silva and Nadine Moawad.
• Check out the new episodes of the IRL podcast. They double as the 2022 Internet Health Report. Go there for show notes, transcripts, and more.