Back to the future – Girl Code talks AI @ ING
Another awesome Girl Code meetup has taken place last Wednesday and this time we were welcomed at ING. A new company for us, but not a new hostess. We were lucky enough working with Victoria again. We’ve met her at Booking.com during our ‘The challenges of a (Girl) Coder’-meetup and now she’s kicking ass and empowering women at ING. So, when she called for another meetup at her new office and suggested a topic high on our wish list: we couldn’t possibly refuse. The topic in question was: Artificial Intelligence. Yeahhhh!
This technology will enhance us. So instead of artificial intelligence, I think we’ll augment our intelligence – Ginni Rometty
The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race – Stephen Hawking
AI, a term of which it’s true definition is still debated on, but most of us still have a hope, fear or opinion about. Some people can’t wait for what the future of it will bring, some just hope it won’t be as scary as they envision it to become. This night was all about lifting a corner of the veil covering it by our professional Girl Coders.
The talks
First up was Flavia with her key note titled: Demystifying AI – Robots are coming! During her talk she deconstructed the hype around AI and it’s differences with Machine Learning. It was a very interesting, inspiring and highly amusing talk of 40 minutes, so I will not be giving a summary of her whole talk. If you didn’t attend our meetup last Wednesday, you really should try to keep an eye on her and hear her talk some time about this and other topics yourself! Highly recommended! But one thing she really stressed to us is the importance of a good and complete dataset. ‘Cause your AI will be biased, and it’s predictions no good if the dataset is already biased. So a true challenge for us humans is: to keep making sure the data we feed it is the best and most complete it can be.
After a little breather it was time for Esther’s demo. Esther has been a member of Girl Code since the earliest days and is one of those inspirational people we really wanted on our stage some time. Wednesday was finally that time, ’cause our topic perfectly fits Esther, you know her being a Master of Science in it. During her short demo she showed us how we all, with a little time (like 40 minutes), can set up our first AI using TensorFlow. Check her slides to get on it!
We finished the talks with a panel discussion. Flavia and Esther were joined on stage by Janna (IT Chapter Lead) and Bidisha (IT Manager). They answered all the questions and ideas of our Girl Coders in the audience. And they did so with great passion! We closed the evening by getting to know each other and meeting up with what have become good friends while enjoying some truly delicious snacks and drinks provided by Victoria and her awesome team.
It was another AWESOME night! Thank you all for coming and making this another success as always. You ARE Girl Code :-)
If you want to join us next time, we already announced our next one at bloomon March 21st. RSVP’s will open up in January when we announce the whole program after a little holiday break. So keep an eye on meetup, to make sure you have a spot!
Happy holidays and see you next year!
Meet our 700th Girl Coder: Carla!
Carla and I connected on LinkedIn after our mutual connection Xander tagged me in one of her posts. It was about AI and how it shapes our thinking power. Carla wondered about what will happen if 99% of it is developed only by men.
AI, the topic of our next meetup and a topic we thus have in common. So naturally, I invited Carla to our next meetup and as it turns out she became our 700th Girl Coder! Time to celebrate our community again with a blogpost, this time about: Carla!
Why, besides my invitation, did you want to join our group?
To talk to smart, talented young women who are navigating their career in an extremely male dominated world. How does this influence your behaviour? What do you do to develop your personal leadership? How do you stay true to your own values?
Do you code?
I did program Siebel (a CRM system) for about one week :-). But I had to admit that this wasn’t my talent. I want to support the women whose talent it is to code. In this era of digitalisation we need the voices, the views and the opinions of women coders more them ever! To make sure we won’t get stuck in an era of ‘digital patriarchy’.
From LinkedIn I know you’re a feminine leadership coach. Do tell more about what this entails!
I teach women business leaders how to develop and value their feminine side, so they become more balanced and powerful as leaders. Personal leadership is developed differently in women than it is in men. First of all because a woman’s and a man’s psyche operates differently. They have different inner forces driving their behaviour. In a patriarchal society and business culture it’s the male psyche that is dominant. Women need to learn about their own inner forces if they want to understand themselves and effectively use these forces. Secondly, as we’re all starting to see, the forces in our society act out differently on women than on men. A woman needs to become conscious about the external pressure that is put on her, so she can consciously make decisions. Thirdly, charisma is developed differently. Charisma is like an energy source that we carry with us in our bodies. It’s connected to our life-force. Developed through a grounded sense of self-love, self-esteem and finding joy and safety in one’s own body. Without a healthy, loving relationship with our bodies we experience difficulties connecting to our life-force, intuition and charisma.
Do you have any advice for our (professional and just starting out) Girl Coders in this male dominated field?
My advise to all women working in male dominated fields who want to have impact and shape tomorrows world is:
1. Stay connected to other women, for nourishment, laughter and learning.
2. Invest continuously in your personal development so you become the best version of yourself.
One last random thing you still want to share?
A universal wisdom is that you should treat others in the way that you would like to be treated yourself. Should you ever encounter a boss or a team that doesn’t treat you in this way, get out. There are enough great people out there who would love to work with a smart, talented, hardworking woman like yourself!
Ineke 