Are AI ethics conferences different and more diverse compared to traditional computer science conferences?

Even though computer science (CS) has had a historical lack of gender and race representation, its AI research affects everybody eventually. Being partially rooted in CS conferences, “AI ethics” (AIE) conferences such as FAccT and AIES have quickly become distinct venues where AI’s societal implications are discussed and solutions proposed. However, it is largely unknown if these conferences improve upon the historical representational issues of traditional CS venues. In this work, we explore AIE conferences’ evolution and compare them across demographic characteristics, publication content, and citation patterns. We find that AIE conferences have increased their internal topical diversity and impact on other CS conferences. Importantly, AIE conferences are highly differentiable, covering topics not represented in other venues. However, and perhaps contrary to the field's aspirations, white authors are more common while seniority and black researchers are represented similarly to CS venues. Our results suggest that AIE conferences could increase efforts to attract more diverse authors, especially considering their sizable roots in CS.