# 51 Women in Machine Learning and Data Science — AI, privacy, surveillance business model and Ecofeminism against techno police
On December 10th, we hosted our 51st event, featuring two extraordinary speakers: Meredith Whittaker, President of the Signal Foundation, and Raphaëlle Rémy-Leleu, Conseillère de Paris. Their participation was truly a dream come true for us, and for our community.
The evening began with the usual introduction of WiMLDS by Caroline Chavier, co-founder of the Paris chapter. Then, Brigitte introduced the “Institut des Transformations Numériques” (Les Mines), our gracious hosts for the event.
The night concluded with a networking session over a buffet generously provided by The Allyance and ITN.
Our first speaker for the evening, Meredith Whittaker, President at Signal Foundation, explored the intersection of artificial intelligence, privacy, and the surveillance business model that dominates today’s tech landscape. She traced the roots of AI’s current rise to the commercialisation of networked computation in the 1990s and the adoption of surveillance as the core business model of the internet. This framework was built on policy decisions that ignored early warnings about privacy violations and enabled the unprecedented concentration of power and data in a few tech giants’ hands.
She examined how this historical foundation has shaped the development of AI, particularly large-scale models reliant on vast amounts of data and computational power. She argued that AI today is less a technical innovation and more a derivative of these surveillance practices, marketed as intelligence to reinforce existing power asymmetries.
The talk also focused on the ethical challenges of deploying AI in an inequitable world, where its benefits often serve the privileged while its harms disproportionately affect marginalised communities. Drawing on her work at Signal, she presented an alternative paradigm for technology development: one that prioritises privacy and user rights over profit.
Thank you, Meredith, for this deeply insightful talk!
Raphaëlle Rémy-Leleu, Conseillère de Paris and expert in surveillance, security, and public policy, delivered an engaging and interactive talk on these critical topics.
She began by reflecting on the importance of privacy, trust, and consent in a world increasingly dominated by surveillance technologies, using a live experiment with the audience to illustrate the ethical complexities of consent in digital and physical spaces.
She revealed that Paris hosts over 5,000 state-controlled cameras, a number that excludes private and transportation-related surveillance devices. Despite this extensive network, there has been almost no serious study of the effectiveness of CCTV in preventing or solving crimes. The only relevant academic study, conducted in rural France, concluded that CCTV was largely ineffective at preventing crime and only marginally effective in resolving specific indoor cases.
Then she critiqued the narrative surrounding AI-powered surveillance, particularly its use during the 2024 Paris Olympics, where experimental algorithmic video surveillance systems have been introduced without sufficient transparency or accountability. She shared with us her deep concern over the lack of regulation and oversight, warning that such tools could be weaponised by far-right local governments to target vulnerable populations systematically.
She underscored the importance of evaluating surveillance systems scientifically and called for stronger checks and balances to prevent the erosion of civil liberties. Her call to action emphasised the need for public debate and transparency, highlighting the resistance her own motion for a neutral study on CCTV’s effectiveness faced within Paris’s city council.
Thank you, Raphaëlle, for delivering such an important and engaging talk.
The Paris WiMLDS co-organiser team is looking for new members! Interested in joining us and becoming a co-organiser? If so, please fill out this form.
We’re working on or next events in February and April. Stay tuned for more updates as we get closer to the date!
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