Why Consider AI Careers
Why Consider Artificial Intelligence Careers (3:29)
“Artificial intelligence systems learn, and when you’re learning, you can only learn what you’re being taught. And if you’re not taught the right things, then you’re going to have a certain behavior. We need girls to pursue AI as a career such that they can create those algorithms that come from different thought processes.”
Role models in order of appearance: Betelhem Dessie, Randi Williams, Taniya Mishra, Marilyn Jackson, Tiffany Chen, Jordan Harrod, Ehi Nosakhare, Ifueko Igbinedion, Preeti Ravindra, and Katie Skinner.
1) In the video one of the role models told us that, “Fifty percent of the world’s population is female, and fifty percent of the workforce building these technologies should be women.” Why is it so important to have women working in the AI field? How can we encourage more women and girls to consider careers in AI?
2) Listeners learned that AI is all around us. How often do you use AI? Give examples of AI that you use on a regular basis. How would your life be different without AI?
3) In the video, a role model was talking about programming artificial intelligence. She said, “When you’re learning, you can only learn what you’re being taught.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why? Can you think of an example from your life to justify your opinion?
4) Many of the role models spoke about the possibility of biases being programmed into artificial intelligence. Why would it be bad to have biases programmed into the AI algorithms? What can be done to help prevent biases from making their way into AI?
5) One role model told us that, “We’re really at a turning point in society where we’re going to start to see robots in our day-to-day lives and we’re already using artificial intelligence in our day-to-day lives.” Why would it be exciting to have a career in AI or robotics right now? What reasons might women and girls have for pursuing careers in these fields?
6) A couple of the role models discussed the future of AI and robotics. What role do you think AI and robotics will play in the future? What types of jobs and tasks might AI and robots do? What type of things do you think they won’t be able to do?
Most of us might think that artificial intelligence is the future, but it’s actually currently our reality. It touched upon a lot of our lives, the way we think, the way we decide things, targeted ads, the way you google, everything that you do has AI involved in it.
When you’re on Google and it’s finishing your sentence, that’s artificial intelligence. When you pull up Instagram or Snapchat and you do the cool face filters that make you look like a bunny, that’s also artificial intelligence.
It is in every aspect of our life, from our smartwatches to our ride-hailing apps to our voice agents. And 50% of the world’s population is female. Consequently, 50% of the workforce building these technologies should be women so that we can better serve the needs of the entire human population.
Artificial intelligence systems learn, and when you’re learning, you can only learn what you’re being taught. And if you’re not taught the right things, then you’re going to have a certain behavior. We need girls to pursue AI as a career such that they can create those algorithms that come from different thought processes.
What we don’t want to do is have people from one particular group or another program in their own biases into those algorithms. So we need to have people with lots of different backgrounds.
An algorithm is a set of lines of code that are designed to either create an output or make a decision or perform some sort of task. A data set is often what you give to the algorithm to help it create that output or make that decision or perform that task.
And so because these algorithms are becoming more pervasive in our lives, it’s really important that we think very carefully about the data that is being used to train them and making sure they’re balanced, making sure they’re unbiased.
A data set that equally and accurately depicts all people, all walks of life, all races, genders, sexual orientations, everything, so that everyone has an equal and fair chance to be represented by AI in the same situations.
That’s one reason why it’s really important that a lot of people are involved in creating the technology because if it’s only a small group of people building for a huge population, then they’re going to miss things. And we really want problems to be solved in a way that are meaningful to the people who are going to be using them. So people who are very good at empathizing with others who they’ve never met, I think that’s one of the most important skills that an engineer can have.
Girls like you would be shaping the artificial intelligence of the future. Introducing artificial intelligence to empathy, to happiness, to joy, to human emotions, and to guide artificial intelligence make the decisions that a human would make is truly in the hands of young girls like you because you would be working on this 10 years down the line.
It’s a great time to consider a career in robotics and artificial intelligence right now because we’re really at a turning point in society where we’re going to start to see robots in our day-to-day lives, and we’re using already artificial intelligence in our day-to-day lives. So it’s a really exciting field to be in because it’s new and it’s growing. So you can really have an impact on how it’s going to grow and how it’s going to shape the future of society.
Independent Learning Guide: This all-purpose guide can be used by educators, parents, and mentors to jumpstart a lively discussion about why girls should consider careers in Artificial Intelligence.
AI, Machine Learning and Robotics is an important and growing field. Challenge yourself to learn just one of these AI, Machine Learning and Robotics terms each day.
Classroom Lesson Plan: This step-by-step lesson plan is available to guide a more in-depth “before, during, and after” learning experience when viewing the video with students. This lesson plan is also suitable for use in after-school programs and other educational settings.
Use Empowerment Activities as a fun way to reinforce the video topic and build community with your students.
Related Empowerment Activities:
Fun Page Activity: This activity lets you practice creating secret messages using a computer code known as binary. Learn about how computers send and receive information while creating codes of your own!