“The future of AI is being built by a relatively few like-minded people within small insulated groups”
Amy Webb, The Big Nine.
Today I attended the a conference called SAS Analytics Day: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Symposium at University of Louisville. (Or as explained below, I attend part of the Conferance). This was a technical conferance for the most part; I grasped maybe 10% of what was discussed but I thought it would be worth the effort.
And it would have been….But right after lunch there was a panel discussion composed of Louisville businessmen who were using AI and machine learning in their daily work. Here’s a picture of that panel.
It took me about 5 minutes to notice something unusual about the panel. Then it hit me like the proverbial 2 x 4 across the head: No women. No person of color. I quickly glanced through the remaining and previous presentations: same thing. No women. No person of color.
Now Louisville isn’t a big, big city but its not small. And the conference was hosted by an academic institution, the University of Louisville School of Business that proclaims, “We are a diverse community that values all members and their contributions, treats one another with civility and respect, and embraces inclusive leadership throughout the College.”
It was sponsored by SAS, a software company which labels itself as a “leader in analytics” and proudly proclaims that it “never shy away from the fact that our actions affect the world around us.” Says SAS, we have “a multidimensional culture that blends our different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives…We want everyone to feel confident in expressing their ideas, and know that they will be respected for their unique contributions and abilities.”
No women. No person of color. And on a STEM program