This is a YouTube link to a PBS (Nova) documentary on IBM Watson: The smartest machine ever build – The first time I watched this, I thought ‘hey something is wrong here’. I went back and watched it again. I got another person to watch and validate – there were no women scientists, and there are hardly any women speaking in this documentary.
Recently I read this article written a few months back with the title – Artificial Intelligence Has a ‘Sea of Dudes’ Problem. The number of women in computing is low and it looks like the number of women in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence is even lower.
Do you recognize these data scientists? Click here for source
IBM’s CEO Ginni Rometty says “I think in the next five years, you’ll use this kind of technology… With the cognitive intelligence we see in the the technologies that have become part of our everyday lives, she seems to be making a fairly accurate prediction. Siri now tells me 23 miles to get home and updates me on traffic conditions when I start driving! Companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook and others are investing heavily in studying, researching and building applications that leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence. When the expectation is that this technology will impact every facet of our daily lives, I think there will be great value when contributions to such code, projects, and applications come from both men and women.
What can be done to increase the number of women in this field? I am not sure I know the answer here but I am curious about what thoughts others have on this topic.
This article appeared first in LinkedIn.
