As Ivana Bartoletti put it, 'You can have the most amazing algorithm, and you can demonstrate that you followed due process, but you might still be using it for the wrong reasons. This is where the ethical debate comes in.' A recent example from Austria highlights this bias problem when an employment agency used an algorithm that discriminates against women. According to the NGO AlgorithmWatch, a female candidate was more likely to be given a lower score than a male candidate, even if she had the same qualifications and experience. 'If it's a homogenous group of people building the technology, it's quite difficult to have that unbiased mindset.

Artificial Intelligence is already a part of our daily lives. We use Siri or Alexa to help us with the everyday tasks, we rely on algorithms to get tailored recommendations on Netflix, or in our email inbox to filter our emails. AI is already here and is changing our lives. But, one big area Ai is transforming and has a potential to do even more so is - healthcare. Babylon Health is already pioneering AI to make healthcare more accessible and affordable.

On Thursday 16th May, I had the pleasure of speaking at the UNESCO International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Education, in Beijing. In my speech, I outlined what I think are the two most important AI principles for countries. Firstly, that AI will only succeed if it will make us more, not less, human, and secondly, that algorithms can inform our decisions and policies but must not become policy makers. Policy makers must remain human and must remain in charge. The outcome of the conference was in the consensus approved on the last day: AI in education has to be trustworthy, inclusive, and free from gender bias and privacy harms.

Back in the 1980s, Artificial Intelligence (AI) just had to look good in the movies and be able to power fancy talking cars, zappy spaceships and various forms of fantastical cyborgs who would one day roam the planet and possibly destroy the human race. Fast-forward to 2019 and we find ourselves deep in the AI renaissance (or perhaps first'real' birth of AI, rather than any form of rebirth) as we now have the processing power, memory capacity, cloud network breadth and sophisticated algorithmic intelligence to actually apply AI to our lives. But there's a problem -- we (the humans) who build the AI brains need to be able to construct them with a pure enough form of digital DNA such that they stay clean of any form of discriminatory bias. Major cloud networks have already been criticized for employing software that discriminates against women; a well-known search engine has been accused of featuring ethnic bias in results when looking for'unprofessional hairstyles'; an equally well-known social network has been criticized for showing certain job ads only to men; and the list goes on. The question the tech industry must now face is: how to we rid AI of bias in all its forms and ensure fair play for all in the age of computer-driven decision making? One set of answers comes from Women Leading in AI (WLinAI), a network of leaders working in tech, science, politics, business and think tanks – the group is demanding that the UK government takes back control of technology.

Back in the 1980s, Artificial Intelligence (AI) just had to look good in the movies and be able to power fancy talking cars, zappy spaceships and various forms of fantastical cyborgs who would one day roam the planet and possibly destroy the human race. Fast-forward to 2019 and we find ourselves deep in the AI renaissance (or perhaps first'real' birth of AI, rather than any form of rebirth) as we now have the processing power, memory capacity, cloud network breadth and sophisticated algorithmic intelligence to actually apply AI to our lives. But there's a problem -- we (the humans) who build the AI brains need to be able to construct them with a pure enough form of digital DNA such that they stay clean of any form of discriminatory bias. Major cloud networks have already been criticized for employing software that discriminates against women; a well-known search engine has been accused of featuring ethnic bias in results when looking for'unprofessional hairstyles'; an equally well-known social network has been criticized for showing certain job ads only to men; and the list goes on. The question the tech industry must now face is: how to we rid AI of bias in all its forms and ensure fair play for all in the age of computer-driven decision making? One set of answers comes from Women Leading in AI (WLinAI), a network of leaders working in tech, science, politics, business and think tanks – the group is demanding that the UK government takes back control of technology.

The overarching problem of men dictating the rules has found new expression in something that is currently changing the way we live and breathe: artificial intelligence (AI). There are great benefits in the use of AI and we should cherish them. However, the issue is not innovation, or the pace of technological improvement. The real problem is the governance of AI, the ethics underpinning it, the boundaries we give it and, within that, who is going to define all those. With that in mind, I think the next fight for us women is to ensure artificial intelligence does not become the ultimate expression of masculinity.