Why Government Needs More Women in AI

Women in tech can supercharge teams' creativity and help them stay under budget, meet deadlines and improve outcomes, studies show, so it's time for more women to pursue tech careers, according to a lead Department of Labor official speaking at GovernmentCIO Media & Research's Women Tech Leaders event Thursday. Kathy McNeill, who leads emerging technology strategy at the agency, said the federal government needs more women in AI to produce accurate data sets and data analysis. "AI is a reflection of those who develop it and the data sets we use," she said during a fireside chat. McNeill provided an example of how Google Translate took the phrase "she is a doctor and he is a babysitter" and translated it to "he is a doctor and she is a babysitter" in another language, to illustrate biases inherent in artificially intelligent algorithms. "A lot of systems were developed 10 to 20 years ago," she said.