AI has a bias problem. Barring African experts from a conference in Canada won't help

London (CNN Business)Some of the leading artificial intelligence experts from Africa and South America have been denied visas to attend a major industry conference in Canada, dealing a setback to efforts to prevent bias from taking root in the new technology. Conference organizers say Canadian immigration authorities have denied visas to two dozen academics from countries such as Nigeria and Brazil, preventing them from attending the event next month in Vancouver. Katherine Heller, a professor who serves as co-chair of diversity and inclusion at the Neural Information Processing Systems conference, said organizers "are trying extremely hard" to have the visa denials overturned. "It is very significant for the field of AI that all voices be heard," she said. The problem of algorithmic bias in data science has become more pronounced, and there's mounting evidence that AI-powered algorithms display bias against women and some racial groups.