To give women academics and others their well-deserved—and overdue—time in the spotlight, TechCrunch is publishing a series of interviews focusing on notable women who have contributed to the AI revolution. We’re publishing these pieces throughout the year as the AI boom continues, highlighting essential work that often goes unrecognized. Read more profiles here.
Tara Chklovski is its CEO and founder Technology, a non-profit organization that helps teach young girls about technology and entrepreneurship. She has led the company for the past 17 years, finding ways to help young women use technology to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues. He studied at St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, before earning a master’s degree at Boston University and a PhD at the University of Southern California in Aerospace Engineering.
Briefly, how did you get started with AI? What drew you to the space?
I started learning about AI in 2016 when we were invited to the AAAI (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence) conference held in San Francisco and had the opportunity to interview a number of AI researchers who are using AI to address interesting problems ranging from space to inventories. Technovation is a non-profit organization and our mission is to bring the most powerful, cutting-edge tools and technologies to the most underserved communities. The AI felt strong and right. So I decided to learn a lot about it!
We conducted a national survey of parents in 2017, asking them about their thoughts and concerns about AI, and we were surprised by how African-American mothers were very interested in bringing AI literacy to their children, more than any other demographic. We then launched the world’s first AI training program — the AI Family Challengepowered by Google and Nvidia.
We’ve continued to learn and iterate since then, and now we’re the world’s only project-based AI education program with a research-based curriculum translated into 12 languages.
What work in AI are you most proud of?
The fact that we are the only organization to have a peer-reviewed research paper on the impact of our project-based AI curriculum and that we have been able to bring it to tens of thousands of girls around the world.
How do you address the challenges of the male-dominated tech industry and, by extension, the male-dominated AI industry?
It’s hard. We have many allies, but usually, the power and influence rests with the CEOs, and they are usually men, and they don’t fully empathize with the obstacles that women face at every turn. You become the CEO of a trillion dollar company based on certain characteristics, and those characteristics may not be the same ones that allow you to empathize with others.
As for solutions, society is becoming more educated and both sexes are becoming more sophisticated in empathy, mental health, psychological development, etc. makes more progress. We have enough research and data to know what works. We need more champions and defenders.
What advice would you give to women looking to enter the AI field?
Get started today. It’s so easy to start messing around online with free and world-class lectures and courses. Find a problem that interests you and start learning and building. The Technovation curriculum is also a great starting point as it requires no prior technical background and at the end you would have created an AI-based startup.
What are some of the most pressing issues facing artificial intelligence as it evolves?
[Society views] underserved groups as a monolithic group without voice, agency, or talent — just waiting to be exploited. In fact, we’ve found that teenage girls are some of the earliest adopters of technology and have the coolest ideas. A group of Technovation girls created a ride-sharing and taxi app in December 2010. Another Technovation team created a mindfulness and focus app in March 2012. Today, Technovation teams create AI-based apps, creating new data sets that focus to groups in India, Africa, and Latin America — groups not included in applications originating from Silicon Valley.
Rather than seeing these countries as just markets, consumers and receivers, we need to see these groups as powerful partners who can help ensure that we build truly innovative solutions to the complex problems facing humanity.
What are some issues AI users should be aware of?
These technologies are moving fast. Be curious and look under the hood as much as possible to learn how these models work. This will help you become a curious and hopefully informed user.
What’s the best way to create AI accountability?
By training teams that are not normally part of the design and engineering teams and then building better technologies with them as co-designers and builders. It doesn’t take much longer and the end product will be much more robust and innovative for the process.
How can investors best push for responsible AI?
Push for partnerships with global nonprofits that have access to diverse talent pools, so your engineers are talking to a broad set of users and incorporating their perspectives.
