The next time you get directions on your smartphone, or order Alexa to do something, listen closely.
Did you notice that the voices of personal digital assistants like GPS systems, Siri and Alexa are female? Why is that? Especially when the sophisticated problem-solving technologies like IBM Watson and Microsoft’s Einstein are named after men. That’s what a recent UN study found. But does that mean AI is biased against women?
Listen to Joan Michelson’s enlightening conversation about it with Miriam Vogel, the inaugural Executive Director of the new nonprofit Equal-AI,to find out why they think it is and what they plan to do about it.
Listen to learn:
- Why this issue is vital to our economy.
- Why AI systems tend to be biased in favor of white males.
- What companies can do to gender-neutralize and race-neutralize their AI-dependent tools.
- New research to find out more.
- Plus, what Vogel’s crooked career journey teaches us about how to build the career we want.
“The tech space seems foreign to many people who grew up with the art history, history, English backgrounds and the liberal arts and sciences, we don’t feel as connected to the tech space. But it’s all the more important that people with that diverse background bring that in, bring that curiosity, the big picture thinking, the historical context, into the technology space….” Miriam Vogel
Read Joan’s Forbes blogs about her too here and here.
You’ll also want to listen to:
- Barbara Whye, Chief Diversity Officer of Apple, and former VP of Human Resources and Chief Diversity Officer of Intel.
- Roberta Rincon, Society of Women Engineers, Director of Research, on the status and careers of women in various types of engineering roles.
- Telle Whitney, Former CEO of Anita Borg Institute for Women and Cofounder of the Grace Hopper Conference
- Michele Wucker, thought leaders and author of “You Are What You Risk: The New Art & Science to Navigating an Uncertain World.”Thanks for subscribing on iTunes or iHeartRadio and leaving us a review!
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