Firefox was my window into Mozilla 15 years ago, and it’s through this window I saw the power of an open and collaborative community driving lasting change. My admiration and excitement for Mozilla was further bolstered in 2018, when Mozilla made key additions to its Manifesto to be more explicit around it’s mission to guard the open nature of the internet. For me this addendum signalled an actionable commitment to promote equal access to the internet for ALL, irrespective of the demographic characteristic. Growing up in a resource constrained India in the nineties with limited access to global opportunities, this precise mission truly resonated with me.
Technology should always be in service of humanity – an ethos that has guided my life as a technologist, as a citizen and as a first time co-founder of Credo.ai. Over the years, I have seen the deepened connection between my values and Mozilla’s commitment. I had come to Mozilla as a user for the secure, fast and open product, but I stayed because of this alignment of missions. And today, I’m very honored to join Mozilla’s Board.
Growing up in India, having worked globally and lived in the United States for the past two decades, I have first hand witnessed the power of informed communities and transparent technologies to drive innovation and change. It is my belief that true societal transformation happens when we empower our people, give them the right tools and the agency to create. Since its infancy Mozilla has enabled exactly that, by creating an open internet to serve people first, where individuals can shape their own empowered experiences.
Though I am excited about all the areas of Mozilla’s impact, I joined the Mozilla board to strategically support the leaders in Mozilla’s next frontier – supporting it’s theory of change for pursuing more trustworthy Artificial Intelligence.
Mozilla has, from the beginning, rejected the idea of the black box by creating a transparent and open ecosystem making visible all the inner working and decision making within its organizations and products. I am beyond excited to see that this is the same mindset (of transparency and accountability) the Mozilla leaders are bringing to their initiatives in trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI).
AI is a defining technology of our times which will have a broad impact on every aspect of our lives. Mozilla is committed to mobilizing public awareness and demand for more responsible AI technology especially in consumer products. In my new role as a Mozilla Foundation Board Member, I am honored to support Mozilla’s AI mission, its partners and allies around the world to build momentum for a responsible and trustworthy digital world.
Today the world crumbles under the weight of multiple pandemics – racism, misinformation, coronavirus – powered and resolved by people and technology. Now more than ever the internet and technology needs to bring equal opportunity, verifiable facts, human dignity, individual expression and collaboration among diverse communities to serve humanity. Mozilla has championed for these tenants and brought about change for decades. Now with it’s frontier focus on trustworthy AI, I am excited to see the continued impact it brings to our world.
We are at a transformational intersection in our lives where we need to critically examine and explore our choices around technology to serve our communities. How can we build technology that is demonstrably worthy of trust? How can we empower people to design systems for transparency and accountability? How can we check the values and biases we are bringing to building this fabric of frontier technology? How can we build diverse communities to catalyze change? How might we build something better, a better world through responsible technology? These questions have shaped my journey. I hope to bring this learning mindset and informed action in service of the Mozilla board and its trustworthy AI mission.
