Session: By the People, for the People: Why Increasing Diversity in AI is Important & How We Can Achieve It
When computing technology first emerged during World War II, women made up a majority of the computing workforce. However, the number of women in computing and in the computing subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) has declined steadily in the past few decades. It is clear that female and racial minority involvement in computing fields is declining. A lack of gender and racial diversity in AI means biases are unknowingly encoded into AI algorithms, highlighting why it is integral that women and racial minorities claim their seat at the table. By encouraging more women and racial minorities to enter AI, we can assemble more diverse datasets and reduce implicit biases. This talk addresses why women and racial minorities do not enter the AI field, how this trend is harmful to our future, and what we can do to increase diversity in AI.
Bio
Jui's personal experiences with AI and CS reflect her research regarding the importance of diversity. When she started coding, she was often the only girl in CS summer camps and after-school classes. However, thanks to multiple female mentors and role models, Jui has gotten the opportunity to learn about AI and has decided to enter the field in the future. She's made it her mission to highlight the importance of diversity in AI in hopes of inspiring more tech professionals to give other female and minority students the same opportunity. With this mission in mind, Jui founded AInspire, an international 501(c)(3) fiscally-sponsored nonprofit, to help encourage and empower female and minority students to explore the field of AI. With advice from Stanford-educated AI professionals, in-house research, and input from teachers, Jui curated a multi-pronged approach to helping female and minority students succeed in an AI-centric world. After hundreds of hours of tireless work, Jui's efforts are paying off. She's impacted more than 7,500 people in 48 states and 58 countries, created custom curriculums for underserved school districts in Chicago and for community colleges in New Jersey, and has worked with MKAI to give AI talks to business professionals. She's personally taught workshops in English, Spanish, Hindi, and Marathi to students from Bolivia to Bangladesh and everywhere in between. Jui's work with AInspire has been recognized by the Chicago Tribune, Swiss Cognitive, the White House’s CS4ALL Initiative, AI4ALL, and the National Center for Women in Information Technology. When she's not working on AInspire or conducting neuroradiology research at Stanford Medical School, Jui enjoys hiking, biking, and surfing (but only in the summer!).