Last Tuesday 8th of September there was the Women in AI Summit, a global reunion of women and allies talking about AI, its applications in different industries and its future. I think I would not be the only one to agree that it was one of the summits most appealing of the last months about this topic taking into account the current situation. It has been weeks of intense work for the organizers and it was worth to be part of the audience.
The range of subjects was wide including law, education, ethics, social impact and much more. I felt like 24 hours were not enough to learn how women are trying to make changes in all kind of fields. Women are a minority in tech and although this gap is narrowing, there is still many things to do.
I was super interested in the panels from the evening that were focused on the situation of AI in Africa. I was pleased to know there was a place to learn about the their environment and how they are developing networks between tech organizations and the community. They try to encourage the population to get involved in tech and see how they can solve together problems in a different way.
South Africa and Nigeria were the special invites from this summit highlighting their power in the continent.
I was astonished by the diverse amount of women wanting to learn about their insights. They were talking in terms of being business owners, tech leaders and AI experts. They explained the need of volunteering remotely with the current situation and the need of collaboration between communities and companies in order to develop more projects. On the other hand, they discussed about education as a key to bring more women and opportunities.
They mentioned the power of mentorship. They said it was a good mechanism to help women to close the STEM gap. Women should influence women through mentorship because as one of the panelists said ‘it’s never too late to join!’. They also talked about the role of men in all this. They should encourage women to share more their point of view, check if they can help an upskilling of their female employees and seek for opportunities to develop themselves.
After listening to the first two panels I came out with a question that fortunately one woman from the audience was able to answer. I was thinking about what people from the diaspora can do in order to help our places of origin. She told me that we have now the possibility to collaborate with our local communities remotely for non-profit projects and support them with research, papers and lots more.
I was glad to see many people from my country of origin (Nigeria). Their presence was huge in terms of representing the continent and the diaspora in the panels and also in the audience. Some were working in Nigeria and others studying or working abroad. I never thought I could easily get to know so many women in tech from my place of origin. They were bringing good vibes and energy to the summit expressing themselves as excellent AI prophets. I expected to attend a more formal summit and these women gave a spark of light and joy to it.
Their energy was contagious and they even had time to express personal opinions about the need or not of men’s support in order to have time to balance work and personal life. The youngest disagreed with this idea and it was funny to see how they were discussing their different points of view.
The WAI summit gave lessons to many of the attendants about what Africa is doing in tech and how we can actively be part of it. It was an experience that should be copied by more conferences to understand that all women regardless of their origin are in the same page in terms of bringing more female presence into tech.