During the UN General Assembly High-Level Week in September, the topic of AI was the focus of several side events with industry experts and UN officials.
In a session entitled “Paving new paths for women in technology”, Mita Hosali, the Deputy Director of the UN News and Media Division, spoke with Sarah Steinberg, Head of Global Public Policy Partnerships at LinkedIn, Tami Bhaumik, Vice President of Civility and Partnerships for Roblox, and Hélène Molinier, Senior Advisor on Digital Collaboration at UN women.
Ms Hosali started by describing the lack of female representation in the tech world: Overall, about a quarter of those working in the industry are women, and that has dropped to about 11 percent at board level. Women make up only 18 percent of AI researchers.
Data analysis by the LinkedIn platform, Ms. Steinberg responded, shows that not only are women underrepresented, but their numbers are actually declining in terms of hiring rates.
“When it comes to the industries and fields that are truly shaping the future – STEM, the green economy, AI – we see women being significantly underrepresented and not making enough progress in closing that gap,” she warned.
Ms. Steinberg added that in her view, AI will create new forms of employment, but “we must be aware of the fact that it will reshape the jobs and skills we already have”: in the shorter term, she stated, “ women are at greater risk of losing their jobs than men as a result of the introduction of AI tools into the wider economy.”
© ADB/Ariel Javellana
Girls take a science class at a school in Indonesia.
Giving a voice to the marginalized
Roblox, an online platform for creating games and experiences, has nearly 80 million daily active users. Ms. Bhaumik expressed optimism about the future and the promise of generative AI in democratizing opportunities for women and girls, and for marginalized individuals.
Roblox, she said, can help “level up gender equality, making sure that the voices that are very, very weak in the background really come to the fore.”
Hélène Molinier addressed the problem of bias in the development of AI systems, which can have serious consequences in the real world. Many products, she said, contain bias, in areas ranging from image generation to chatbot moderation. She reminded the audience that the decision to market these products despite their flaws remains the responsibility of humans.
Bridging the AI gap
At another side event, Ms Hosali interviewed Amandeep Singh Gill, the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy for Technology, on the issue of effective AI guardrails, and how to ensure they strike the right balance between providing protection and allowing innovation to flourish. .
Existing UN standards, Mr Singh said, such as international treaties and obligations, including the Sustainable Development Goalsare useful guides. However, another concern is the lack of representation in the Global South, in terms of infrastructure and talent.
Mr Singh called for efforts to bridge the AI gap to focus on three areas: ensuring that lawmakers and decision-makers understand the importance of the technology as a public good; providing local researchers and innovators with the necessary data to enable them to build homegrown solutions; and international collaboration in terms of sharing models that have worked in other places.