Working at HuggingFace🤗 A chat with People Ops evangelist Emily Witko

Summary

In this insightful conversation, Emily Whitco, the People Operations lead at Hugging Face, shares her fascinating journey into the world of open-source AI. She delves into the importance of psychological safety within engineering teams, the challenges of knowledge sharing across technical and non-technical domains, and the unique decentralized culture at Hugging Face that fosters creativity and impact. Emily also discusses her personal projects aimed at promoting inclusivity and exploring pay equity using Hugging Face's cutting-edge tools. Throughout the interview, her passion for empowering people and fostering a supportive environment shines, offering valuable insights into building thriving teams in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Takeaways

• 😀 Emily Whitco works in a generalist people role at Hugging Face, focusing on employee engagement, recruiting, and people operations.
• 🤖 Despite not having a technical background initially, Emily learned about Hugging Face's work and felt drawn to their mission of responsible AI development.
• 💻 Hugging Face follows a decentralized approach, where employees set their own goals and projects based on their interests and skills.
• 🌱 Emily helped create structured impact plans for teams to provide guidance and clarity for new hires on their expected contributions.
• 🤝 Psychological safety and inclusivity are highly valued at Hugging Face, with efforts to promote a supportive and empathetic work culture.
• 🌐 Knowledge sharing at Hugging Face happens through asynchronous communication, ensuring conversations are documented for easy reference.
• 🌈 Emily has been experimenting with projects related to pay equity analysis and inclusive language in job descriptions using Hugging Face's tools.
• 📚 Keeping up with the rapidly evolving AI landscape can be overwhelming, so Emily recommends selectively following trusted sources and contributors.
• 🌇 Emily values the openness and focus on potential at Hugging Face, where backgrounds are diverse, and growth is encouraged.
• 🚀 Hugging Face aims to be the platform for AI builders, with a kind ambition to achieve success while prioritizing its people's well-being.

Q & A

What is Emily's role at Hugging Face?

Emily's role at Hugging Face is described as a very generalist people role, focused on tasks related to people operations, such as employee engagement, recruiting, and hiring.

How did Emily end up at Hugging Face?

Emily initially discovered Hugging Face while researching chatbots for a banking startup she was working at. She was impressed by Hugging Face's open-source leanings and responsible approach to AI, and eventually applied for a role there after discussing her interests with the CEO.

What is the culture like at Hugging Face regarding decision-making and goal-setting?

Hugging Face has a decentralized approach where teams and individuals set their own goals and projects, rather than a top-down cascading structure. This promotes autonomy and a lack of rigid hierarchies.

How does Hugging Face foster psychological safety among its employees?

Hugging Face has a team dedicated to maintaining community standards and monitoring the platform. Internally, they have small, project-based teams with team leads responsible for ensuring team members feel validated and supported. The company also values kindness and ambition, promoting a supportive environment.

What project is Emily most proud of at Hugging Face?

Emily is proud of creating structured impact plans for each team, which provide new hires with clear goals and projects to work on, reducing anxiety and increasing confidence.

How does Hugging Face promote knowledge sharing among its employees?

Hugging Face encourages asynchronous communication over meetings, which means all conversations are written down and can be easily referred back to. Employees are also encouraged to share their work on social media and follow their colleagues' updates.

How has Emily been experimenting with Hugging Face's tools?

Emily has been working on two projects: one related to pay equity, using Hugging Face's data and models to ensure fair compensation across different countries; and another tool using Hugging Chat to analyze job descriptions and social media posts for inclusivity.

Who would Emily be interested in interviewing in the AI space?

Emily expressed interest in interviewing Timnit Gebru, who previously worked at Google and is now working on ethical AI. Emily admires Gebru's confidence in standing up to major players in the industry and speaking up for what's important.

How does Emily manage staying up-to-date with AI news and developments?

Emily recommends following a limited number of trusted open-source contributors and projects on platforms like Twitter, GitHub, and the Hugging Face Hub and Discord. She also learns a lot from her colleagues at Hugging Face, who share their work regularly.

What advice would Emily give to someone feeling overwhelmed by the constant flow of AI news and developments?

Emily suggests being selective about the pieces of AI and open-source corners one engages with, as there is so much opportunity that it can be exhausting to try to keep up with everything. Picking favorite contributors and limiting the number of sources is key.