A little off our specific topic of law but hopefully new legal tech companies might take notice of articles like this.
PSFK report
Luke Tang, the general manager of TechCode’s Global AI+ Accelerator, outlines specific skills women possess that translate into successful artificial intelligence applications, such as their empathy and inherent ability to solve niche problems
Artificial intelligence started off as a sterile, robotic technology. You’ve seen the examples in popular culture of robots taking over the world or attempting to destroy mankind. But as this technology has advanced, it’s expanded into exciting new industries, ranging from cooking to health management to the environment, and has de-sterilized its traditional image of a backend technology that’s hard for the everyday consumer to comprehend. There’s a singular thread among the founders leading the charge in this evolution: they’re female.
Even though the number of women in the computing workforce is anticipated to decline, they present a definitively different viewpoint to the future of artificial intelligence development that will be prosperous in allowing this technology to make a real difference.
And in the future world of artificial intelligence, women might even be at an advantage over men by their innate social sensitivity to solve real-world, niche problems.
While artificial intelligence is often portrayed as female – Alexa, Siri, Cortana, Tay – its capabilities embody those traditionally found in solutions and products developed by male founders.
Men often look at the technology and vision its broad applications, whereas women often empathize how new technology can be used to solve a specific problem.
There have been numerous studies conducted that have found women have higher levels of empathy compared to men. Researchers have also found women’s brains also tend to have larger frontal lobes and limbic cortices, which make them more prone to noticing details and making decisions based on specifics.
In this article, I will profile some of the ways that these specific skills women possess have translated into successful and highly valuable artificial intelligence applications.
An empathetic approach to artificial intelligence
Vanessa Xi, CEO of YONO Labs, created YONO, the world’s first in-ear ovulation predictor that measures basal body temperature (BBT) to help women track their fertility. Based on her own experience measuring her BBT every morning, Vanessa quickly realized the process was complicated and frustrating.
To streamline the process, she founded YONO, which collects hundreds of data points through the hardware earpiece. It then uses a corresponding mobile app to plot a monthly fertility chart for future fertility prediction.
This application streamlines a specific health management process and was inspired by a real-world experience, tapping into Vanessa’s own knowledge of the issue to make a product that meets a critical need.
While this can be found in innovations created by men, Vanessa tapped into a definitively female problem and used her own experience to develop a solution that can help manage and even eliminate a key stressor, proving her product invaluable to the user.
As men continue to develop solutions solving issues they see relevant, we run the risk of having biased artificial intelligence platforms that ignore female problems and characteristics. Solutions like Vanessa’s play a key role in diversifying the applications of artificial intelligence.
Similarly, Erica Lee, CEO and co-founder of DeepFarm.ai, used her female-driven empathy and her millennial generation’s culture of social and environmental responsibility to build an Agricultural AI Analytics platform that uses artificial intelligence for early detection of crop issues on farms.
By analyzing farm data at three different layers—above, at and below the soil—DeepFarm helps farmers increase their crop yield and revenue using data-driven solutions by providing customized crop treatment recommendations for a variety of crop issues that are hard to see or difficult to manage.
Read on at https://www.psfk.com/2017/06/future-artificial-intelligence-female.html
