The Role of Artificial Intelligence for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Dear Colleagues,

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force across various sectors, influencing decision-making processes, shaping societal norms, and impacting economic landscapes. Despite AI technologies continuing to evolve and integrate deeper into our daily lives, in recent years, concerns about AI bias and fairness have gained significant attention from researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders alike. Studies have shown that AI systems can perpetuate and amplify societal biases in their training data, leading to discriminatory outcomes across various domains, including employment, healthcare, and criminal justice. Despite these challenges, AI also holds tremendous potential to advance DEI objectives. The possibilities are vast, from developing AI-driven tools to mitigate bias in hiring processes to leveraging AI for personalized education and healthcare. This special issue aims to investigate the role of AI technologies in addressing and contributing to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) aspects.

We invite submissions that explore, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Bias and Fairness: Methods and techniques for detecting and mitigating bias in AI models and technologies.
• Data Diversity and Representation: Strategies for enhancing diversity in training datasets.
• Ethical AI Development: Frameworks and guidelines for developing AI systems that adhere to ethical principles, including transparency, accountability, and privacy.
• Explainable AI (XAI): Techniques for enhancing the interpretability and explainability of AI models to promote trust and understanding among diverse stakeholders.
• AI for Accessibility: Innovations in using AI to develop assistive technologies that enhance accessibility for people with disabilities, including natural language processing, computer vision, and gesture recognition.
• Human–AI Collaboration: Studies on designing AI systems that facilitate inclusive collaboration between humans and machines, considering diverse user needs and perspectives.
• Inclusive User Interface Design: Methods for designing AI-powered user interfaces that are accessible and inclusive, considering diverse user abilities and preferences.
• AI-driven Social Network Analysis: Applications of AI in analyzing social networks to understand and address DEI-related issues, such as online harassment, echo chambers, and social polarization.

We encourage researchers and practitioners in computer science to contribute to this special issue by submitting original research papers, survey articles, and case studies. By advancing our understanding of the role of AI in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion through rigorous computer science research, we can pave the way for the development of more ethical, inclusive, and trustworthy AI systems. Submissions will undergo a thorough peer review process, ensuring the highest quality and relevance to the special issue's theme.

Dr. Marco Rospocher
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Information is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.