Women in the AI ​​scene: Founder Vanessa Cann on resistance

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Scene expert

:

Vanessa Cann

, co-founder of Nyonic

Photo:

PR

In December, an article in the New York Times promised a “who’s who” of the AI ​​world.

The author of the text portrayed twelve men who played a key role in shaping the technological development of AI.

And not a single woman.

Is this just incorrect media weighting?

In 2022, women made up around 30 percent of AI employees, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Report.

There is also an imbalance in Germany.

“There are still far too few women in the field of AI, that cannot be denied,” says AI founder

Vanessa Cann

(31).

“The higher the position in corporations, the more difficult it is to find women.” Some female pioneers are driving technology forward in Germany, but they are more the exception than the rule.

A report from the Federal Ministry of Economics shows: The proportion of newly founded AI companies that are majority owned by women and where a woman is the managing director was just 12.1 percent between 1995 and 2021.

Vanessa Cann knows the industry like no other: Last year she co-founded the AI ​​start-up Nyonic, making herself one of the few women at the forefront of the AI ​​revolution and previously managing director of the AI ​​Federal Association.

At the beginning of the year she, like other founding members, left Nyonic.

As she stated at the time, because of “irreconcilable differences over strategic direction.”

With this, one of the few female role models in the AI ​​scene said goodbye – at least temporarily.

What Cann plans to do next is eagerly awaited.

In an interview with manager magazin, she did not want to comment on this.

Women shy away from career change

When it comes to gender equality, Cann doesn’t give her industry a good report –

Even if companies are trying to change something: “Men-dominated AI companies in particular have difficulty recruiting women for their vacant positions,” she says.

This also has to do with the fact that women often feel uncomfortable in heavily male-dominated teams.

“For example, some women told me that they stopped wearing skirts or dresses to work.” They tried to conform to the male dress code.

Many women are also afraid of making a career change into AI because they fear that they will not fully understand the topic.

You don't have to have studied a MINT subject (mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology), says Cann;

The AI ​​area benefits greatly from experts from various disciplines.

She herself comes from a background in political science; she did her master's degree in peace and conflict research.

“It’s OK to go into tech without knowing how to code,” she says.

The fact that women are underrepresented in the scene has consequences: Researchers

Genevieve Smith

and

Ishita Rustagi

examined more than 100 AI systems between 1988 and 2021;

In 44 percent they found a so-called gender bias: distortions in the AI ​​that have to do with gender.

These can have concrete effects: A few years ago, the online mail order company Amazon tested an AI for recruiting new employees.

But she systematically favored men.

The reason: The AI ​​had been trained with CVs that were sent to the company - and most of them came from men.

When it comes to gender bias, data plays an important role.

But also the teams involved in the development of the systems.

If they are not diverse, the risk increases that prejudices against minorities will not be discovered and will continue to be reproduced.

Or in the words of

Carlien Scheele

, Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality: “Until AI systems reflect our society in all its diversity, AI will cause more problems than it solves.”

Women are also relevant to success when implementing AI projects in companies, says

Kirsten Rulf,

partner and digital expert at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

She refers to a new study by consultants on AI in companies.

“10 percent of the added value lies in the algorithms, 20 percent in the technical implementation and 70 percent of the success lies in the implementation with people,” she says.

That means: explain a lot, listen, convince.

Women could lead precisely these transformation processes very well because they are strong in leadership.

The question of compatibility

However, anyone who is not in the management of an established company but wants to start a business as a woman is faced with the question of compatibility.

“Especially with a family, founders of start-ups quickly reach the point where they can no longer fully meet their own very high standards,” says

Laura Möller,

director of the Artificial Intelligence Entrepreneurship Center (KIEZ) in Berlin.

She supports students and researchers in setting up a business based on science and observes that even of the 35 percent of new students in MINT subjects, only a very small proportion follow this path.

“For many people the decision is: Do I want to have a family or do I start a family?” says founder Cann.

Investors also play a role here: There is often a lot of resistance from investors when it comes to finding ways to reconcile starting a business and having a family.

“There needs to be more openness.

It can’t be a question of either/or.”