I had the honour of opening up the Teens in AI FR 2021 hackathon with a Design Thinking workshop. I joined them for a 9-day hackathon mentoring young people to learn about Artificial Intelligence and the potential for ethical #AI to change the world for good. The event aims to strengthen young people’s understanding of/exposure to AI, critical thinking, ethics and team collaboration.
Here is the workshop (in French) that was delivered to the teams.
Here are more details about Teens in AI and the reasons I decided to participate.
Educational challenge
The world is changing in unprecedented ways. Nobody really knows what the “new normal” might look like.
The main topic of this hackathon is Accessible Education.
It aligns with the UN International Day of Education by addressing the UN Agenda 2030 and by tackling SGD #4 - Quality education and learning opportunities to everybody.
This hackathon is focused on the problems of accessibility of education in general and right now, during the times of pandemic, as well as moving forward.
Each team is shaping their project around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: UN SDG 4: Education.
Diversity Considerations
The AI and data science fields are overwhelmingly white and male.
Only 2.5% of Google’s workforce is black, while Facebook and Microsoft are each at 4%, and little data exists on trans workers or other gender minorities in the AI field. (AI Now Institute, 2019: Discriminating Systems)
Only 22% of professionals who work in artificial intelligence across the globe are female, compared with 78% who are male
Just 13.8 of women have authored artificial intelligence related research papers
Teens in AI democratises AI by creating opportunities for underrepresented talent through a combination of expert mentoring, workshops, hackathons, tech bootcamps and accelerators, company tours and networking opportunities that give young people aged 12-19 early exposure to AI for social good.
