Iranian Scientist among Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in AI
Born and raised in Iran, Tabassi says she always dreamed of being a scientist. She graduated in electronics from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran and then immigrated to the US to continue education in 1994 and began working at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) five years later on various machine-learning and computer-vision projects with applications in biometrics evaluation and standards.
Earlier in her career, she was the principal architect of NIST’s Fingerprint Image Quality (NFIQ), now an international standard for measuring fingerprint image quality, which has been deployed by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.
Nearly five years ago, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) began building a program to advance the development of trustworthy and responsible AI systems. It was Elham Tabassi, an electrical engineer and chief of staff of the institute’s IT lab, who pitched moving the conversation about the impact of AI from principles to practical policy implementation.
Her suggestion proved markedly consequential. After Tabassi’s team started doing research around AI security and bias, Congress mandated NIST (part of the Commerce Department) to develop a voluntary risk-management framework for trustworthy AI systems as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2021.
She proceeded to lead that effort, and in January 2023 unveiled the final framework designed to help users and developers of AI analyze and address the risks associated with AI systems while providing practical guidelines to address and minimize such risks.
The 2023 TIME100 AI list also features 99 other people, like CEOs, founders and co-founders, including Elon Musk of xAI, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Andrew Hopkins of Exscientia, Nancy Xu of Moonhub, Kate Kallot of Amini, Pelonomi Moiloa of Lelapa AI, Jack Clark of Anthropic, Raquel Urtasan of Waabi, Aidan Gomez of Cohere and more.
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