When British computer scientist Karen Spärck Jones told us that computing was too important to be left to men, we didn’t listen closely enough. Now, her mentee Dame Wendy Hall is echoing this call to arms saying, ‘AI is too important to be left to men’ and she’s right.
According to a unique survey of 133 AI companies in Sweden, only one in ten tech start-up founders are women. Meanwhile, research by the Royal Society in the UK has found that only about 20% of those taking computer science GCSE are girls, while 25% of computing students at university level are women. Just 28% of UK girls aspire to work in tech.
This is all the more concerning in a world where AI has the power to create a Utopia, but instead is increasingly being used to fight wars, spread misinformation, and displace human jobs.
Military spending worldwide has hit an all time high, funding wars that are arguably becoming more deadly, volatile and difficult to contain because of AI.
In modern warfare, decisions about life and death are increasingly reduced to data points, processed and acted on by machines.
This shift reflects a broader pattern. We are steadily handing decisions with real human consequences to AI systems trained on our own imperfect data, inheriting our biases while presenting their conclusions and research as fact.
At the same time, these systems accelerate everything, compressing decision time and leaving little room for empathy to intervene. We defer judgment to machines, move faster than we can think, and grow increasingly detached from the human impact of our actions.
As outlined in a recent piece by Fast Company, women (especially older ones) hold the skills central to influencing AI for the good. They have years of experience and judgement, are well versed in empathy – and are used to adapting to workplace changes and transitions, having often had career breaks or even changed careers entirely.
The tools that we use are shaped by us, just as we are shaped by them. Whether this is in the area of developing AI as a computer science or understanding how we use it and what its impact is on women and wider society, it can’t just be led entirely by men.
I am not suggesting that men are void of empathy, because of course they are not. But unconscious bias is prevalent in any industry, no matter how hard we try to mitigate it, and when a sector is so completely dominated by men, it is no surprise that vital life experiences, knowledge, and perspectives are not taken into account when AI solutions are developed.
Women make up only about 29 per cent of the global tech workforce and just 14 per cent of tech leaders. And nearly 28 per cent of women’s jobs are at risk from AI, compared to 21 per cent of men’s.
Meanwhile, a global study from EY found that women are more skeptical when it comes to using AI due to concerns over the technology’s role in spreading misinformation and the risk of manipulation. While this skepticism can contribute to lower participation in the field, which is a clear drawback, it also serves an important purpose. It fosters critical scrutiny, helping to hold AI accountable, avoid its potential pitfalls, and ultimately steer its development and use toward more responsible and beneficial outcomes.
So what does the tech industry need to improve? First, companies and governments need to stop treating diversity as a branding exercise and start tying it to decision-making power. More women must be funded as founders, promoted into senior technical roles and included in the rooms where AI systems are approved, procured and regulated.
Second, AI teams should be required to test products for bias, safety and social impact before release, not after harm is done.
Third, schools, universities and employers need to actively support girls and women into AI through mentoring, retraining and mid-career entry routes, especially for those bringing experience from outside traditional technical backgrounds.
Finally, we need more public voices willing to challenge the idea that faster is always better. Human judgment, ethical review and democratic oversight should be built into AI systems from the start.
So here is my call to women: get involved, step forward and help shape AI. But the responsibility cannot rest on women alone. Institutions must open doors, share power and value the kinds of leadership this moment demands.
That is why I’m also urging men in the tech world to step up and become the allies that they need to be, for the future of the industry and the world as a whole. We’ve reached the point of no return with AI – it will only continue to become more important and more integrated into society, and this can be incredibly exciting, but we have a responsibility to everyone across the world to make sure that the technology is handled and developed in the best way possible.
If AI is going to shape the future, then that future must be built with more wisdom, more accountability and far more humanity than we are seeing now.
