Kingfisher Labs<\/a>, where she helps companies develop AI strategies. She has spent more than two decades as an AI scientist and has worked for Cambridge University, Toshiba Research, and even Amazon Alexa. She was previously an adviser to the VC fund Deeptech Labs and was the Solutions Architect Director at Cobalt Speech & Language.<\/p>\nShe attended Oxford University for undergrad before receiving her master\u2019s and PhD at the University of Cambridge.<\/p>\n
Briefly, how did you get your start in AI? What attracted you to the field?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nI always loved maths and physics at school and I chose to study engineering at university. That\u2019s where I first learned about AI, though it wasn\u2019t called AI at the time. I got intrigued by the idea of using computers to do the speech and language processing that we humans find easy. From there, I ended up studying for a PhD in voice technology and working as a researcher. We\u2019re at a point in time where there\u2019ve been huge steps forward for AI recently, and I feel like there\u2019s a huge opportunity to build technology that improves people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n
What work are you most proud of in the AI field?<\/strong><\/p>\nIn 2020, in the early days of the pandemic, I founded my own consulting company with the mission to bring real-world AI expertise and leadership to organizations. I\u2019m proud of the work I\u2019ve done with my clients across different and interesting projects and also that I\u2019ve been able to do this in a truly flexible way around my family.<\/p>\n
How do you navigate the challenges of the male-dominated tech industry and, by extension, the male-dominated AI industry?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s hard to measure exactly, but something like 20% of the AI field is women. My perception is also that the percentage gets lower as you get more senior. For me, one of the best ways to navigate this is by building a supportive network. Of course, support can come from people of any gender. Sometimes, though, it\u2019s reassuring to talk to women who are facing similar situations or who\u2019ve seen the same problems, and it\u2019s great not to feel alone.<\/p>\n
The other thing for me is to think carefully about where to spend my energy. I believe that we\u2019ll only see lasting change when more women get into senior and leadership positions, and that won\u2019t happen if women spend all their energy on fixing the system rather than advancing their careers. There\u2019s a pragmatic balance to be had between pushing for change and focusing on my own daily work.<\/p>\n
What advice would you give to women seeking to enter the AI field?<\/strong><\/p>\nAI is a huge and exciting field with a lot going on. There\u2019s also a huge amount of noise with what can seem like a constant stream of papers, products, and models being released. It\u2019s impossible to keep up with everything. Further, not every paper or research result is going to be significant in the long run, no matter how flashy the press release. My advice is to find a niche that you\u2019re really interested in making progress in, learn everything you can about that niche, and tackle the problems that you\u2019re motivated to solve. That\u2019ll give you the solid foundation that you need.<\/p>\n
What are some of the most pressing issues facing AI as it evolves?<\/strong><\/p>\nProgress in the past 15 years has been fast, and we\u2019ve seen AI move out of the lab and into products without really having stepped back to properly assess the situation and anticipate the consequences. One example that comes to mind is how much of our voice and language technology performs better in English than other languages. That\u2019s not to say that researchers have ignored other languages. Significant effort has been put into non-English language technology. Yet, the unintended consequence of better English language technology means that we\u2019re building and rolling out technology that doesn\u2019t serve everyone equally.<\/p>\n
What are some issues AI users should be aware of?<\/strong><\/p>\nI think people should be aware that AI isn\u2019t a silver bullet that\u2019ll solve all problems in the next few years. It can be quick to build an impressive demo but takes a lot of dedicated effort to build an AI system that consistently works well. We shouldn\u2019t lose sight of the fact that AI is designed and built by humans, for humans.<\/p>\n
What is the best way to responsibly build AI?<\/strong><\/p>\nResponsibly building AI means including diverse views from the outset, including from your customers and anyone impacted by your product. Thoroughly testing your systems is important to be sure you know how well they work across a variety of scenarios. Testing gets the reputation of being boring work compared to the excitement of dreaming up new algorithms. Yet, it\u2019s critical to know if your product really works. Then there\u2019s the need to be honest with yourself and your customers about both the capability and limitations of what you\u2019re building so that your system doesn\u2019t get misused.<\/p>\n
How can investors better push for responsible AI?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nStartups are building many new applications of AI, and investors have a responsibility to be thoughtful about what they\u2019re choosing to fund. I\u2019d love to see more investors be vocal about their vision for the future that we\u2019re building and how responsible AI fits in.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved \u2014 and overdue \u2014 time in the spotlight, TechCrunch has been publishing a\u00a0series of interviews\u00a0focused on remarkable women who\u2019ve contributed to the AI revolution. We\u2019re publishing these pieces throughout the year as the AI boom continues, highlighting key work that often goes unrecognized. Read more profiles\u00a0here. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-95135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}