Tech Talk

Ask Alexa Why We Need More Women in AI...

Dec. 4 2017

Ask Alexa Why We Need More Women in AI...

Spoiler alert- her response is "Sorry, I don't know this one".

She's not alone. The companies creating AI Bots like Alexa, Cortana, Google Home and Siri are known to have less than 20% of their technology jobs filled by women- so it's not a surprise that when a Bot is told "you're pretty", it replies: "How can you tell? Where have I heard this before?".

AI that flirts back? Definitely not something created by women. It's been proven that when women are invited to sit at the table, teams are more productive, collaborative, and creative in comparison to all male teams. In terms of AI, this means less gender bias and more diversity-of-thought-leading to better problem solving. Less mistakes like the Apple Health App, and thus more time on code that really matters.

Kate Brodock pleads for more women to join teams that create these bots in "Why we desperately need women to design AI", and explains why it's so crucial to get women at the table from the beginning.

"You could make the argument that AI is positioned to make one of the largest, most profound changes to humanity that many have ever seen. It touches or will touch most of what we care about and will be built with the ethics, morals, biases and access of the people who create it. This means we need to pay close attention that it represents all users."

You deserve a seat at that table. Find a position with a company with an open seat that's waiting for you here. We can't wait to see all of the amazing things that you accomplish.

You may also like View more articles
Open jobs See all jobs
Author