Developing girl’s digital and AI skills for more inclusive AI for all

UNICEF, the Government of Finland and the ITU recently hosted a webinar discussion entitled Developing Girl’s Digital and AI Skills for More Inclusive AI for All. The event was part of the AI for Good Global Summit webinar series.

While AI-powered technologies hold enormous potential to improve the lives of children, as our draft Policy Guidance on AI for Children illustrates, this can only be achieved if action is taken to address current imbalances in the AI ecosystem, including gender bias and discrimination. Evidence indicates that if girls are not involved in the design of AI systems in a meaningful way, systemic gender biases will continue to be perpetuated.

Special attention needs to be given to ensure that girls are included in AI literacy programs, given their underrepresentation in digital literacy programs generally. In particular, AI-enabled solutions – feminist AI – should be developed by and for girls and young women, so that their needs are met in an empowering and safe way, and gender bias is minimized. To support this necessary sea change towards gender-transformative AI, this webinar focused on the barriers, opportunities and promising practices for increasing girl’s digital and AI skills. To ground the discussion, the panel featured girls in the AI field to share their perspectives and successes.

Want to know more? Please see the ITU’s webinar page for more details on the event description and speaker bios.

Moderator:

• Patty Alleman, Senior Advisor for Gender Equality, UNICEF

Opening remarks:

• Preetam Maloor, Head, Emerging Technologies Division, ITU
• Aki Enkenberg, Senior Adviser of Development Policy: Digital Cooperation, Technology and Innovation, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Panelists:

• Ecem Yılmazhaliloğlu, Founder of Technoladies, WEF AI Youth Council Member/Representative of Turkey, Diversity Advocate, and AI4ALL alumnus
• Alisha Arora, Founder at The HopeSisters, AI for good advocate, Mental Health Change Maker
• Caitlin Kraft-Buchman, CEO/Founder, Women at the Table and Co-Founder, Alliance for Inclusive Algorithms
• Hoda A. Alkhzaimi, Director of Center of Cyber Security and research assistant professor, New York University

Closing remarks:

• Belén Guede, Co-founder and former director, STEM Academy
• Preetam Maloor, Head, Emerging Technologies Division, ITU