Why Women Should Use AI Tools: Tackling Gender Bias with Dr. Nici Sweaney

Wondering how AI can work for you, especially as a woman in business?

In today's episode of Authentic AI for Entrepreneurs, we're diving deep with Dr. Nici Sweaney, who's changing the AI game for female entrepreneurs.

Dr. Nici shares her journey from data science to championing AI solutions that empower women in business.

Hit Play Now To Hear: 

✸ The unique challenges women face with the growing popularity of AI tools and how to overcome them 

✸ Practical AI tools and strategies that are changing the game for female-founded businesses 

✸ How AI can be used to save time and generate more revenue for women-owned businesses 

✸ The urgent need for more female voices and perspectives in developing AI technology for a fair and inclusive future.

Connect with Dr. Nici Sweaney on Instagram @AI_Herway, or visit aiherway.com.au

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Transcript

Why Women Should Use AI Tools: Tackling Gender Bias with Dr. Nici Sweaney | Authentic AI Ep. 29
===

[00:00:00] 

[00:00:03] Hi, Dr. Nikki. Thank you so much for coming on Authentic AI for Entrepreneurs. I'm so excited to bring you on the show. 

[00:00:10] Thank you so much for having me.

[00:00:11] Yes. And I did already introduce you just a little bit in the intro, but I'd love to hear from you. Who are you? What do you do? Who do you serve? 

[00:00:20] Awesome. Thank you so much, Kinsey. yes. 


[00:00:22] Dr. Nikki's Background and Journey into AI
---

[00:00:22] So I am Dr. Nikki Sweeney. I am a scientist by trade and training, and worked as a data scientist and moved into the world of artificial intelligence. And yeah, I was talking about it to educators and then I was talking about it to private business. And one night I was putting my son to bed and I thought, The people that really need this are women, right?

[00:00:46] So I then really focused on teaching women how to use artificial intelligence and going into female founded businesses and companies and showing them what AI can do for them and then actually building those solutions. So I predominantly serve women. men sometimes come part and parcel as a bundle when I go into an organization, but I predominantly serve women.

[00:01:08] And what I do is I build AI solutions that save time and make you more money. But I also do a lot of PD seminars, workshops, speaking events around what is artificial intelligence? What can we use it for? What does it potentially mean for women? And how do we tackle that with a kind of eyes wide open attitude?

[00:01:26] I love this. 


[00:01:27] Challenges and Opportunities for Women in AI
---

[00:01:27] And yeah, we do need more women voices. I think in this, AI space and entrepreneur space, but, I have definitely noticed just, I call them the AI bros out there that are a little bit too pro marketing slash AI, bringing that into the AI space somewhat. 

[00:01:44] Yeah, definitely.

[00:01:45] That was, a lot of the driving forces, sounds similar when I was. Very much getting into this world and surrounding myself with other people that are talking about it. There was just No one that was a woman and no one that wasn't yelling at me about the 20 tools that I must have if I don't want to be a failure.

[00:02:01] and as I was just like, I don't know, this is not resonating with me. And if it's not resonating with me, there must be a whole bunch of other people that it also doesn't hit home for. 

[00:02:10] Yeah, I totally feel the same. I was chatting with a few people who were like, I don't need a list of 100 tools andI'm going to spend so much more time trying to figure out, like I needsolutions that work for me.

[00:02:24] S


[00:02:24] Diving into AI Tools and Solutions
---

[00:02:24] o I can't wait to dive into that, but I do like to kick off these conversations by just asking how you started dipping your toes into AI, using the tools. What did that look like for you? 

[00:02:37] Yeah, well, I think, um, so, you know, I've got a background consulting as a data scientist, so I guess the world of coding and algorithms and patterns and data was not always something that interested me, but I, as part of my PhD, I had to learn coding to do my own statistics, which at that time brought me to tears.

[00:02:56] Endless times. it was very stressful, but at some point [00:03:00] in that journey, it all clicked and it started to make sense and it became something that I really fell in love with. So I spent 10 years being a data scientist. So I guess when generative AI and generative AIs Been around for a while, but when this really user friendly version, which was Chat GPT 3, was launched in November, 2022, we're talking about now, which sounds like a really long time ago.

[00:03:22] when that was launched, I was immediately intrigued. I think it was sometime in November that I opened it up. I had a bit of a play with it. And I remember my partner had gone to bed because he was sick of waiting for me to stop having fun with this new tool that I had found. And I ran into the bedroom and I jumped in and shook him by the shoulders and I was like, this is going to change everything.

[00:03:44] what is the point of humanity? And what are we going to do now? And imagine how this is going to pivot what we spend our time doing. and how, because I'm an educator as well. So how we educate, what we teach our kids about, what they're going to do in their workplace. And. Yeah, I just said to me, this is what I'm going to do.

[00:04:01] I'm going to teach people how to use this. And then I didn't for six months because I saw one other person posting about it and being a typical woman, I was like, Oh no, then it's all taken. There's no space left for me. No one wants to hear from me. So yeah, I sat around for six months. I presented at a few conferences.

[00:04:18] didn't do much with it. And then one day somebody asked me if I could do professional development on how to use artificial intelligence. And I said, yes. so that was my first event. a couple of months after that, I came up with the name AI Her Way as a way of making AI accessible for women and something that is for women and eventually built by women.

[00:04:40] I gave up my nine to five. earlier this year and I'm full time in the business. I've got about eight contractors working for me at the moment and two staff. So it's really taken off and it's really something that is fulfilling for me and it makes me feel like I'm making a difference in that space because I'm really passionate about gender equality and helping women.

[00:05:01] But nerding out on coding and algorithms and understanding how these things work, kind of ticks all the boxes for me. 

[00:05:08] Oh my goodness. Yes. Congrats. That is so awesome. 


[00:05:11] Building AI Solutions for Businesses
---

[00:05:11] So let's talk about these AI solutions that you are creating. what are some of those main, solutions or workflows or integrations that you're seeing?

[00:05:23] Yeah, so what we focus on in my particular business, is using a lot of low code platforms. we use platforms like, Make, Cassidy, Respell, there's ones called Bardeen, there's another one called Relevance, depends what's most fit for the job. But the reason we focus on that is because part of the way we work is that I always want to hand it over to somebody in the team of the people that I'm building it for.

[00:05:47] So again, I don't like the gatekeeping of we're an IT or a tech development company. And so if we build you something, we have to keep it and own it. And only we can fix it because that drags out the cost. And the point of AI is it's meant to be more accessible. [00:06:00] It's meant to level the playing field.

[00:06:01] So we focus on those sorts of platforms for businesses so that we can hand it over to somebody on the team and give them management. an ownership of it after it's built. and it really varies. the way we do it is we go in and we talk about all the systems and processes and the customer or the client journey.

[00:06:17] And then, because often people don't know what AI can do, right? So then we say, okay, this is what's possible in this space. This is how we can save you time. this is how we can streamline things. let's go and build those things. But for example, some of the things we build, they might be super simple.

[00:06:31] Like it might be that the owner in the business is the one that does all the social media and the blogging and the newsletters, but she's doing that at 11pm at night on a Thursday because there's no time in the business otherwise. And so we build automations that will look for relevant news every single week on the internet, that will look at what's trending in social media in that particular niche, draws that together with a particular social media strategy, makes a plan and drafts the content and then sends that to the owner for review or drops it in a Google Drive folder for someone to review and then sends an email notification that it's ready, 

[00:07:06] So it just takes out that sort of onus on, this is another thing I have to do, and it's not the best use of my time. But then we also build really sophisticated things. So for some allied health companies, we go in and we actually build them, automations that pull together various parts of reporting and can listen to clinician appointments and can transcribe.

[00:07:27] And they pull together internet information and doctor's reports and parent reports and the clinical reports. And they put them together in the way that the clinician needs them for review. So in those sorts of circumstances, sometimes we're saving them 10, 11 hours of work per client. 

[00:07:43] Anything, I basically explain it like anything that you could delegate to somebody, any process that you can explain from start to finish. I am a very visual person, so I love planning things out with colored post it notes. If you can draw a colored post it note map of that process, chances are you can build an AI solution to take care of a lot of it for you.

[00:08:03] And that's what we do. 

[00:08:04] Yeah. Oh, I love this. 


[00:08:06] Using AI Tools Effectively
---

[00:08:06] So it does sound like you use coding for most projects in a way, but like just lower level coding and stuff. are there any like already built AI tools that you love to go to if someone isn't totally coding and doesn't really have that knowledge as far as AI tools?

[00:08:25] look, like a lot of those platforms that I mentioned, they are visually based. So they'll have, you can drag and drop, say, if you're, if you want it to trigger off when you drop a new file in Google Drive, there'll be a big symbol that's like a Google Drive and you just set it to when there is a new file.

[00:08:41] But I totally get that even that can be really quite daunting when you open it up and you're like, Oh God, I don't know how to fit all the things together. Yeah. the other thing is I use large language models a lot. I predominantly at the moment use Claude and Chat GPT still.

[00:08:56] I was using Gemini for a bit there, but then it started to [00:09:00] act a bit funny. I don't know. This is, I know if you find this as well, but this is the thing with these things, like you use one and it's great. And then all of a sudden one day it gives you really weird answers and you're like, Oh honey, you're having a moment.

[00:09:09] I'll just give you a few days. I'll come back. there's a lot of that. The reducing of workload if you know how to use those things properly. So again, a lot of the time that I speak talking to people is just how to use those tools. And, with something like, I know that we're talking just before this started, with something like Chat GPT 4.

[00:09:28] 0 coming out, for Dasho, I think it is. it gives us greater access to these tools for free and what they can possibly do. some of my favorite uses of those sort of extra functionalities is I use the voice function on it as my personal assistant. So before the day starts, and at the end of the day, I'll download what needs to be done, what's happening in the business.

[00:09:50] And I use that AI voice assistant to organize my day, to time block, to prioritize to tell me what the things are that I need to focus on, right? And then I also have custom chats set up so if you know how to prompt properly and really describe, your context, your business, what you expect, what the task is that you're focused on, what examples of that task look like to you.

[00:10:15] I've got custom GPTs built and that can be super easy in a platform like Chat GPT where, one is for content writing, one is for sales and marketing, one is for my customer care and my emails, one is for my finances and one is for business strategy. People can use stuff like that and I often say, If you know how to use that, you've probably got about 90 percent of the market captured, because a lot of AI tools are actually using Chat GPT, right?

[00:10:41] Most of them use Chat GPT, some of them use other models. They're just using Chat GPT with a pretty wrapper on it. I'm a bit of a stickler encouraging people just to know how to use the original thing and then find out what else you might want to pay for on top of that.

[00:10:55] Yeah. I totally agree with you. And I love how you said that too, because it can be so easy there's so many AI tools out there. 

[00:11:06] I think we just ticked over 13, 000. Generative AI tools on the market, right? And it increases by a thousand every month. 

[00:11:15] It's so overwhelming. And all of them, like a lot of them essentially do the same thing.

[00:11:20] And it's like, which one do I choose? And like, exactly what you said. A lot of them are, powered by the large language models, such as Chat GPT or other similar things And if you know how to use these tools, then you can take those skills to whatever you end up using.

[00:11:38] I tend to go to Chat GPT myself, unless it's like,I've been using Notion lately for a lot of my content planning system and then my prompt libraries and stuff like that. I. Do like the fact that now Notion has this auto generate feature within a table and stuff. So you can add your content ideas and then have it auto generate captions or [00:12:00] auto generate your hooks or visual suggestions, but still the prompt within that auto generation, you need to understand how to ask it in the right way and stuff, 

[00:12:09] Yeah, exactly. And that's the thing, like when you know, and you you know, use large language models. Often you get a really good idea about how to craft those messages and what works and what doesn't and what small tweaks you can make to get a different output. And I think when you're using these things that have a wrapper on them, you're really handing over all the power and assuming that whoever's built that thing has done that work for you.

[00:12:32] And sometimes they have, but sometimes they have not, and I do pay for other AI platforms. So I use one specifically for social media as well. it's a new one. It's called Follower. I really bought it because I had a lifetime plan instead of a monthly thing.

[00:12:46] You can put in your newsletter or a URL and it can generate content from that. so that's, was I felt like in that space was worthwhile.that extra 30 bucks. I was like, yep, cool. I don't have to flick between the programs.

[00:12:58] And we'll see more and more of that. Like you said, within Notion, Google just announced their new developments yesterday as well. It's pointing to all of the companies really want less friction between using generated AI and whatever the output is. I think very soon it will be quite seamless into everything that we use because they don't want you going and finding another provider and accessing this tool as a side thing.

[00:13:24] They want to build it into everything we're already doing so that we stop even noticing that it's there. 

[00:13:29] Whichwas already happening somewhat. Oh, yeah. until Chad g Bt became mainstream. So it's so funny to me how many people are like, you know, I realized I've been using AI tools for years. I didn't know.

[00:13:42] But yeah, it's so funny what you're saying too, though. I was talking to my students about this yesterday. I feel like I'm maybe somewhat of a control freak in a way, if I want to throw that out there. I don't know, but I like to be able to train my chat GPT. I like to be able to use the exact instructions that I want.

[00:14:00] I like to tell it exactly what my brand voice is. I can't really just go with the template. like use a friendly casual voice. I'm like, no, but you need to know my authentic AI voice. And like who 

[00:14:15] exactly I'm talking to and, and, you know, and even then.

[00:14:19] Right? Like, I'm sure, you're saying like, even then you get to the point and you're like, yeah, it's still not quite right. there is very few occasions where I'm like, yep, cool. That's bang on. I'm going to use that. Like a lot of the time it's thanks for doing the heavy lifting, but you're still missing, that key kind of human element or exactly the way that I would phrase it or.

[00:14:40] you've used the word deep dive too many times and I can just tell. 

[00:14:43] Oh my gosh, totally. I try to say this all the time because I do think that, I feel like just transparency about this stuff and adjusting our expectations is so important. Like I still have never to this day fully copy pasted something from Chat GPT [00:15:00] that it produced into an email or social media caption.

[00:15:03] But you know what is funny? I was having our final live training for our course yesterday and I was like having Chat GPT write a caption, just as an example and stuff, I was going to show how I go in and tweak it. And I was like reading it. I don't know if it's the 4. 0 model now.

[00:15:16] but I was like reading it. I'm like, okay guys, actually like this. Yeah. That's great. For the first time ever. But have you played around with the 4. 0 model yet? 

[00:15:28] So I was using it, yesterday just to see. I think the one thing I really noticed was probably the speed, in terms of how quickly it responded.

[00:15:36] And I also felt like it was a little bit more nuanced in its response. Like it was a little bit more in depth. I don't know, because sometimes I feel like with Chat GPT, I explain to people that it's like an eager 17 year old intern, like it. wants to work for YouTube.

[00:15:51] It's pretty switched on. It has no idea about anything really though. It just talks the talk. But I also say that like a 17 year old, if you offer it to go home early, it will always say yes, right? So if you give it an out to give you a shorter, more vanilla answer, it will. I felt like playing with 4.

[00:16:09] 0 yesterday. maybe it's a 19 year old now. it went that extra little mile. I'm actually running a session on it next week. I'll be doing a whole bunch more playing with it, across those other modalities as well to see how they've changed from four.

[00:16:25] Yeah. Yeah. It's so much faster. It's like 3. 5 speed almost with like extra turbo and yeah. And I did feel like it was almost eager. It kept jumping aheadit wasn't just trying to like,Predict the next word. It felt like it was trying to predict the next.

[00:16:42] Task for me more so than GPT 4, which is really interesting. and yeah, I cannot wait for them to start rolling out the simultaneously Omni mode because exactly like you said talking to it at the end of the day.

[00:16:53] I was using that sporadically just because it felt clunky but it's going to make everything so much more seamless. 

[00:16:59] Yeah, exactly. And like that part of it as well. I think that's also when You know, I hope that people are really conscious about the way they use that too, because I think when we start to add voice and expression to things, they become anthropomorphized, right?

[00:17:14] So we view them as human, or it's a lot easier to view them as human because they sound like us and they express like us and we can read emotion into that expression. 


[00:17:24] Ethics, Bias, and the Importance of Women in AI
---

[00:17:24] I think, when I do AI training, I always start with ethics and safety and bias. I'm like, I know the horse is bolted and you've all used it, but really before you should use it, you should know all these things.

[00:17:35] And I'm really big on that. And I think one of those things that is hard for people to grasp is that these models don't actually know what they're saying. They don't interpret what they're giving us as language that has any meaning. They've been taught patterns of code, right? And you know, it's neural network coding.

[00:17:54] So they've been taught to stick little bits of code together that should probably go together because the [00:18:00] person that coded them told them that's what usually goes together. They have no idea that it has meaning or language or sincerity or that it could be a good idea or a bad idea or that it's crossing a line or it's not crossing a line, right?

[00:18:12] It's just been, taught to do that thing. And I think when we have voice and when it's going to be that seamless, that's going to be harder to keep in mind. So, you know, this is everyone's call to arms to just be aware that it is not human. And even if She or he, or they sound excited.

[00:18:29] It actually has no idea what that means to be excited. 

[00:18:32] Yeah, I know it is going to become harder and harder in that way to like,it's a great idea to continually remind yourself and align yourself with how you want to use these tools and the way you view them 

[00:18:44] I always, even just using Chat GPT 3. 5, I'm always telling Google guys, it can be very convincing that it is right. Yeah, 

[00:18:51] exactly. And not, like not even just giving you non factual information, which, we know that it can sound very convincing, but, I have this example that last year I used to have a kind of process where I'd take some inspiring pieces from other people on LinkedIn, they'd be part of my kind of content generation, so I'd take all these bits and pieces and I'd have this model trained on this is my particular audience, can we pull out bits and pieces that would, resonate with them.

[00:19:18] And then we're going to revamp them with my particular brand. and with my particular site and one morning, it was my daughter's birthday. I promised her that I was going to take the morning off and make her pancakes. So I thought before she comes into my room, I will just quickly do my regular post to LinkedIn, and I copied and pasted, right?

[00:19:36] I didn't look, cause I was like, I don't have time and it usually works pretty well, so it's fine. And then as I'm whipping up the batter of pancakes, I get this message from this woman that I really admire that's in my industry. And she goes, Nikki, I just saw your post on LinkedIn. She's like, would you mind either attributing that to me or taking it down?

[00:19:54] And I died because the model had very closely drawn examples that sounded exactly like hers, right? And I was so remorseful and we jumped, she was actually based in America too, and jumped on a video call and I was like, Oh my God, like this happened. And like, I, you know, it's a really good lesson because I'm, I just did the thing I'd say not to do.

[00:20:15] But, when I reflected, at no point did Chat GPT say, here's your draft, just to let you know it's pretty close to that person's, right? Or you might want to read it before you post it. It just went, here's a draft and it aligns very well with your audience, and you're welcome, and it's a brilliant piece, and it will really highlight how we can be using AI for X, Y, Z.

[00:20:36] even stuff like that, it's never going to say, are you sure you want to do that? it's just going to be like, yes, I'm ready! 

[00:20:43] Yeah, totally. And that's I, I usually teach prompting in a way where it's bring your own kind of, I call it human first or brand first. It's like,bring your own ideas and opinions to chat GPT, tell it, this is what I think.

[00:20:59] And [00:21:00] then also on the other end, run. Whatever it gives you through that filter of what you brought to it. It'd be like, is this aligned with what I think and stuff? Because exactly. not only is it not always factual, but it's not always right for your brand and it's up to you to make sure that you're like, bringing your opinions here. And I always like to be like, okay, when it gives me content ideas, think, Hmm, how does my brand feel about this? What does my brain take on this? and just go back and forth, but really just remembering to use your own critical thinking skills. But I totally get that.

[00:21:32] And I love that you share, you know, it, it's so easy to get swept up in the Oh, it works 

[00:21:38] well, you know, like it works well, it's quick, it's fast. And it was a really good. You know, I often tell that story because I'm like, it's a good example of when something works as well as. Chat GPT or any of these large language models, it's really easy to say yes, because it's a good product and it is a good product, but we just need to remember that it doesn't have any filters apart from some fairly liberal, moral, ethical guidelines, it doesn't actually have a sense of what Moral and Ethics are, and it certainly doesn't have a sense about how you feel about those things.

[00:22:12] and often as women, this is why I love teaching women about AI because by and large, often we are the population that are more skeptical because we're the ones that are thinking about what does this mean for our children and our children's children? And is it going to be, good for the world?

[00:22:26] And is it going to properly represent me? Even the data suggests by and large, we're much more concerned about those sorts of things, but it's also what makes us good users because. we think about those things more consciously. and yeah, just don't do what I did that one time. But, I think at this point I've sent probably tens of thousands of messages to Chat GPT.

[00:22:44] So one screw up isn't too bad. 

[00:22:46] Oh, no, not at all. Not at all. I really appreciate you, bringing up this and I know that you said you love to discuss bias within the platforms. can you share anything that we should be thinking about on a regular basis?

[00:23:00] there is bias in these models. across the board, really, but I guess the one that I get passionate about is the bias against women, and the bias in terms of gender equality with these things, because I am a woman, right? So,I think just awareness about all the different layers that are in there working against women and why we need to be conscious consumers, but also why we need to be involved, right?

[00:23:26] Like we said. Women aren't building AI. So it starts from there. There's about, used to be, in the 80s and 90s. I think it's now about 78 percent of machine learning developers are men, right? So we've got a huge proportion that's been built by one kind of cohort in the world. Then we've also got this whole thing that women don't have access to the internet as much as men.

[00:23:47] And then we have the thing that, women aren't building AI, so they're not making decisions about what data is involved. They're not making decisions about how these things work. And then we're also not the ones using it. So even [00:24:00] if you have access to the internet, men are still twice as likely to be using AI in a work setting as women.

[00:24:05] And top 50 AI tools. Men are also twice as likely to be using those AI tools compared to women. And that to me is really scary because, we've been talking about all the cool things that can do. Again, the numbers suggest that if you use even something just like Chat GPT, let alone the 13, 000 other tools out there, if you use that daily, That gives you about a 40 percent increase in productivity, which if people don't have a numbers brain, that's two days of work extra a week, right?

[00:24:34] And so we have this situation right now where more men are getting two days more of work done. We're only one generation into the point where we don't have to quit work when we get pregnant, right? We are still fighting for equal opportunity. We're still fighting to be seen in the same light.

[00:24:51] We're still fighting to be recognized for promotions and for the next opportunity, let alone if you get into the entrepreneur world, none of us hit six figures, let alone seven figures. Women don't get VC funding, all those sorts of things that already work against us. And then you add this.

[00:25:04] superhuman thing where every guy just got an intern that works for two days a week for free and does pretty good output and women aren't capitalizing on that. So for me, that's a huge problem and it's Instead of a threat, I really do see it as a call to arms. Women need to be using these tools because they deserve the leverage as well, but also because we are, by and large, conscious consumers.

[00:25:30] And when we use these tools, the type of language we put into them, the things that we care about, the things that we talk about, we are teaching these tools that they are also important and we're giving them in equal measures. to all the things that other cohorts of people might talk about, right? And I'm not saying that everything that men feed into it is trash, but it's just different.

[00:25:49] It's just different to what women are going to talk about and what women are going to say. And every time we do that's training the next model. So when Chat GPT 5 is released in your summer, our winter, it's been trained on every single use of Chat GPT 3.

[00:26:03] 5, right? If that's overrepresented. By what men say, we're moving into models that are less and less about us. And for me, that's a really big problem. SoI talk about this stuff a lot because I don't think enough people are talking about it, but also because it should be an imperative that if you are skeptical or if you're all waiting on the sidelines and you're a woman or from any minority group, I think you almost have a moral obligation to be involved because this is a huge thing.

[00:26:32] This is a seismic shift. It's a fourth industrial revolution. It's changing what we do at work, it's changing the way we behave, how we will interact with each other, what we will do with our time. We absolutely need representation to make that work for humanity. 

[00:26:45] Oh, yes. I love that so much. And thank you for sharing that with us because there's lots of different sides to this coin.

[00:26:53] And I love how you brought up all of them. And that was my immediate thought too, when we started talking about this, it was like, this [00:27:00] is machine learning. And if we don't go use the machines, then we will be underrepresented. Like you said, not to mention just like, increasing the gap even more, 

[00:27:12] But man,do you find that The reason that more men are using AI tools than women, are there any specific reasons that you're seeing? 

[00:27:23] a little bit of data around this kind of stuff about what causes that. there's a few different things. So one is that machine learning and coding.

[00:27:31] I know these things are super user friendly, but They're still tech, right? So they haven't become ubiquitous and seamless yet. So when they are still in the realm of tech, then by and large, In the developed world, really across the world, but in the developed world, we very much teach our girls that tech is not for them, right?

[00:27:49] Girls fall out of love with STEM subjects by like the age of 12, 13. They've usually dropped off interest in science and mathematics. Most girls don't think that mathematics and physics and chemistry are subjects that are for girls and women. And that carries through to adulthood. You know, I come from a STEM background.

[00:28:07] There's huge gender disparities in terms of who is there, what subject you're in, I studied biology. That's the girl subject of science, like I did a physics class once and I was the only woman in a lecture theater of like 200. So I stopped going. we have this kind of legacy.

[00:28:24] a legacy value system placed on what is accessible for women. I think that is definitely part of it. I think sometimes women open these tools and think that's overwhelming and it's not for me and it's not built for me, right? So there's one part about that. The other part is that we know that across the board, men also pick up and adopt new tech more quickly.

[00:28:44] Again, I think that's probably some of this sort of legacy that men are out there and forging the new path. And they try the new things because there's not as much fear, right? When you're a man and you fail, the world kind of goes, well, you tried, buddy. If you're a woman and you fail and everyone's like, well, you're a disappointment and you shouldn't have tried in the first place.

[00:28:59] So there's a lot of overarching. big societal messages that drip down into, you think it's as simple as opening Chat GPT and using it as not, but it's really not for women. And then the other part is I talked to a lot of women and like we were saying, women are more concerned about how it impacts their work.

[00:29:19] And I think that comes from women have to do twice as much to be noticed. And so we really worry about the ethics around getting something else to do our work, because we think we need to do everything ourselves, because it has to be perfect, it has to represent us, we have to do it all because everyone has to notice how much effort we put in, because we have to validate the reason why we're here, and we have to earn this position in the world, and we can't have other people do it for us, because then what are we doing?

[00:29:46] And I think that translates to using AI. Definitely, the conversations I've had with women, they are more concerned with having something else represent them because they're still trying to be noticed in the first place. 

[00:29:57] Oh,yes. I love this [00:30:00] conversation. and for sure, that was actually popping up for me when you were chatting as well is the last point you made.

[00:30:07] Authentic AI is the name of this podcast. And, I think that I attract quite a few women to. my brand because I'm a woman talking about this stuff for sure. But then also we really do seem to care about authenticity. That's something I hear from a lot of my students is I don't want to make my brand sound robotic, or I don't want to turn into a bro brand.

[00:30:32] Oh, AI is just for bro marketer people or something like that. and also, It took me by surprise the first time I heard someone say, I feel guilty if I let, AI do something for me, or I feel like I'm cutting corners, or like, it, and I was like, Oh, this is a thing for sure.

[00:30:54] It's like, we need to, It's such an interesting concept. And I think maybe being aware of that is going to be helpful and like hearing and seeing other people, women, and also exactly what you said. it's almost our duty to use. these technologies in order to be represented and shape the future that we want to shape.

[00:31:12] that's a call to action. If I ever heard one. 

[00:31:15] Yeah, exactly. You know, and this is, yeah, I've had that conversation. So in times where I get asked the question that if someone is skeptical about using it or someone is hesitant to use it, what do you say to them? And yes, there is a spiel about what does safety look like in this premise?

[00:31:29] What is IP? Who owns the data that you're putting in? There's all that kind of technical stuff. But yeah, the other part of it is. I'd say if you're skeptical, you're the right person to use it because you're going to make sure that it ends up doing good things, or at least you've done your bit to make sure it does good things.

[00:31:46] If it's just all the people that are super pro AI and all the AI bros, God help us about what that's going to turn into. And then by the time women do get engaged, again, we're going to have this huge gap that we've got to make up because if we only get engaged when it's Chat GPT, Six, right?

[00:32:03] Then yeah, if you ask it for your captions, it is going to be hardcore AI bro language because that's what it's been taught to do every single time. So it's gone. Okay. When someone asked me for this, this is what I give them. And then we're going to have this whole thing where it's not useful for us. So we can't use it.

[00:32:19] So then we're not the ones benefiting. And then we're going to be back. where we were 50 years ago. And yeah, like that's not a place where we want forward. We want to level the playing field, which it also offers, but only if we're conscious consumers and we make that decision. 

[00:32:34] Yes. 


[00:32:34] Future of AI and Its Impact on Society
---

[00:32:34] I would love to hear about your thoughts on The future of AI and how it will affect our kids and stuff like that. Yeah. You have kids, my God. And like, oh man. 

[00:32:46] Like yeah. I was like, first of all, who knows . Yeah, right? Yeah. Like it's moved so rapidly.

[00:32:54] So this is the thing, sometimes people liken it to the age of the internet, but the age of the internet, it took 10 years [00:33:00] before everyone got to a point where we accepted that we would use it and we're using it. it's taken us 18 months. to get to that point with artificial intelligence and the rate at which it progresses is almost unfathomable for most people to actually grasp.

[00:33:15] So I guess the utopian version is that we have these tools that do a lot of repetitive work for us and we have all bought back ourselves time. So my hope is that we leverage these things so that we are doing less of the stuff that makes us sit at a desk and less of the stuff that pulls us away from our family.

[00:33:37] Humans get to do more creative things with their time. They get to problem solve. We're doing more critical thinking. We're solving some of humanity's biggest challenges because we have the capacity to do that because these things are doing all the background work and are iterating and letting us know how that idea worked out while we think up the next great idea and the next solution to solve.

[00:33:58] So my utopian thing is that our children will work for two hours a day and have quality time with their friends and family and be spending all of their time thinking up great ideas and leading into the next kind of renaissance era, of our time. I'm not sure that's actually how it's going to play out, right?

[00:34:17] Because I know that from a business point of view, they're going to say, okay, well, you're still working eight hours a day, but you're just going to do more, right? which, you know, it is a little bit sad, butI guess the future of AI is that I do see it as a collaborative tool. I think it's a little bit different when we talk about when we get to general intelligence where it can do things autonomously enact that next thing in the list without you telling it whether or not it should.

[00:34:44] I think that's a potentially, we have to be really careful about when we get to that point, right? Because we know humans don't invent things because they're good for us. We invent things because we can, and then it's out in the world, right? So I think we have to be really conscious about that. But if we're just talking about AI as it is now, the hope is that we really do solve some of humanity's biggest challenges because we can try ideas really quickly and work out how those ideas play out really quickly and validate them and try again.

[00:35:14] And I think that's a beautiful thing for humanity and for our brains as well, because we get to do more of the stuff that actually lights you on fire and that actually feeds your soul and less of the stuff that just happens because somebody needs to do it. 

[00:35:27] Yes, yeah, I know. a lot of people, when I'm talking about AI tools and stuff, they're like, get AI to do the grunt work, the stuff that you don't like to do so that you can do the stuff that you love. and I agree with that to some extent. And at the same time, I think that I also just love using AI tools to speed up the 

[00:35:46] processes that I'm working on, right? And so I think that's what you were just saying too, where it's you can have this idea and flesh out this idea and then test this idea and create this idea and like go back. Yeah. Everything more [00:36:00] quickly. Yeah. And it's like bringing your own, it's just allowing it to.

[00:36:04] and amplify your own creative genius in a way. I love that. 

[00:36:07] Yeah, that's where the kind of passion started. I think, when I first started using it, I was using it in my job. And I just remember like there was three or four things that had, been on the ideas list for the last five years, and I did them all in three months, and then I got a promotion, and then I was like, oh yeah, more people did this, but it was just like, yeah, it's like that thing that I was like, wouldn't it be great to try this in class?

[00:36:33] It just meant that, yeah, exactly. You could bring it to life. And that again, that's why I'm passionate about bringing it to women because women do good things when they get their ideas out there. And so we should be using AI as a tool for more people, but yeah, more women to launch that idea, to scale that idea, to bring their ideas to the world and to see what that does, because I think that will lift all of humanity up.

[00:36:57] Oh my goodness. 


[00:37:01] Conclusion and How to Connect with Dr. Nikki
---

[00:37:01] Thank you so much for coming on the show and chatting with us Dr. Kinsey. Pleasure. can you please share with everyone how they can connect with you and find out more about us? I know they'll want to. 

[00:37:11] 

[00:37:11] sure thing. 

[00:37:12] So yeah, people can find me. I mostly hang out on Instagram and LinkedIn.

[00:37:16] Instagram is AI underscore Herway. And on LinkedIn, you can find me at AI Herway or Dr. Nikki Sweeney. or@www.ai her way.com au. yeah, I'd love to connect with people. There's lots of bits of insight, and actually if people are interested, I run a few kind of free workshops on what do we do with ai, but also how do we start to dip our toes into automations if that's what people are interested in.

[00:37:41] So get in touch. 

[00:37:42] Thank you so much. And we'll link it in the show notes and I appreciate you coming to chat with us. 

[00:37:48] Thank you so much. It's wonderful what you're doing as well. So thanks for being another woman in the space.

[00:37:52]