Sony AI’s Alice Xiang Named Among Nature’s “Ones to Watch” for 2026 for Pioneering Work in Advancing Ethical AI

Tokyo, Japan – December 11, 2025 – Alice Xiang, Global Head of AI Ethics at Sony and Lead Research Scientist for AI Ethics at Sony AI, has been named one of Nature’s “Ones to Watch 2026,” part of the prestigious Nature’s 10 list highlighting individuals who shaped science in 2025 and are poised to influence it in the year ahead. Xiang was recognized for her work on and leadership of the Fair Human-Centric Image Benchmark (FHIBE) research.

Published on the cover of Nature on December 4, 2025, and officially released for use on November 4, 2025, FHIBE is the first publicly available, consensually-collected, and globally diverse fairness evaluation dataset for a wide variety of human-centric computer vision tasks. It enables researchers and developers to evaluate bias and accuracy across a variety of computer vision tasks, including face detection and verification, pose estimation, and visual question answering. FHIBE also serves as a catalyst for industry-wide improvements in responsible and ethical protocols throughout the entire data lifecycle – from sourcing and management to utilization – including fair compensation for participants and clear consent mechanisms.

In highlighting Xiang’s impact, Nature noted, “Xiang has shown that it is possible to train AI models on an image data set that is ethically sourced and reduces biases. Will others follow suit?”

A distinguished researcher, accomplished author, and governance leader, Alice has dedicated her career to uncovering the most harmful aspects of AI – many of which originate in data and the AI training process. Because data forms the foundation of all AI technologies shaping our society, it must be ethically sourced, diverse, fair, and properly governed. Ensuring these qualities from the start is essential. Moreover, solutions should be accessible to the industry that address potential harms arising from AI development and the deployment of new technologies.

Alice’s research and contributions are vital for addressing these issues, improving AI technologies, and promoting responsible practices across the technology industry.

Since joining Sony AI, Alice has published dozens of papers in top research venues and continues to seek new areas where her team can help enable the development of more responsible AI systems.

For more information on FHIBE, visit https://fairnessbenchmark.ai.sony/.