Teresa Berndtsson / Better Images of AI / Letter Word Text Taxonomy / Licenced by CC-BY 4.0
I feel I’ve been neglicting the readers of my blog, that is, YOU, this year.
On the bright side, I have continued to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion in organisations, technology, and workplaces through opinion articles and fiction.
I’m delighted to share with you that my writing has been featured in three magazines in the last three months.
Artificial Intelligence and the Global South
In September, the economics e-magazine The Mint published my article How artificial intelligence is recolonising the Global South.
In the 5-min piece, I discuss how the Global North exploits poverty and weak laws in the South to accelerate its digital transformation.
Have you ever asked yourself:
- Who moderates our social media?
- Who annotates the images for our self-driving cars?
- Who extracts the metals needed for our smartphones?
- In which populations AI algorithms are tested?
Being accountable for the books we read
In October, Certain Age Magazine published The DEI Booklist: Five books to think and act differently, where I reflect on the fact that whom we read matters as much as what we read.
In the article, I review 5 books:
- Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger by Soraya Chemaly
- Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
- Data Feminism by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein
- Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano
- Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence by Kate Crawford
I also share how I overcame the inertia of only reading books written by White, able, American, heterosexual cis-men.
Scoop: It took two years!
Using short fiction to get people talking about emerging technology
Last week, the Medium magazine The Lark published my second short fictional story, The Life of Data Podcast. As in the previous one – The Graduation – I’ve used future fiction to question the interplay between humans and technology, specifically AI.
Have you ever thought what happens to your photos circulating on social media? That’s what I did in this 10-min short fictional story.
In a nutshell, I imagined what the data from the digital portrait of a Black schoolgirl woud share about how it moves inside our phones, computers, and networks if it was invited to speak on a podcast.
How does the story resonate with you?
And the cherry on the cake
In August 2022, I was featured in the Computer Weekly 2022 longlist of the most influential women in UK tech.
Each year, Computer Weekly publishes the longlist of all of the women put forward to be considered for its list of the top 50 Most Influential Women in UK Tech.
And I was nominated!
Looking at the names of the other 600 women in the UK that were nominated as well was such a boost of energy! Among them, I’ve found great role models, IT leaders, community builders, and amazing raising stars.
One thing that I love in the list is that not only women in software development were nominated, dispelling the myth that tech is only about coding. Tech is so much more! Women investors, CEOs, COOs, non-tech founders…
If you’re unsure if there is a place for you in tech, please have a look at the list and get inspired. We’re waiting for you!
As I mentioned on a previous post, I’m writing a book and I need your help!
I’d be immensely grateful if you could complete and/or share with your network of women in tech this short survey about your/their experiences at work.
What do I mean by “Women in Tech”? Women working in any function (R&D, HR, services, finance, CXO) in the tech sector (software, hardware…) or in tech-related functions in other sectors (e.g. IT, cybersecurity…).
Whilst the survey is anonymous, you’ll have the option to get involved in the project before submitting the form. Thanks for your support!
Inclusion is a practice, not a certificate!
