In the ever-evolving world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), where novelty meets uncertainty, the «Women in Tech – Fireside Chat about AI«, an event organized by Eventbrite that took place in Madrid, offered a glimpse into the present and possible future of the AI revolution.
The panel led by Eventbrite CEO, Julia Hartz, brought together Macarena Estévez, Nerea Luis and Esther Paniagua, three of Spain’s most prominent voices on LinkedIn, who engage in thoughtful discussions and pitch ideas, addressing both the doubts and fears surrounding AI and the opportunities it presents.
The group emphasized the need to embrace AI as a reality and recognized its potential downsides (e.g. job displacement, bias and discrimination, ethical concerns, lack of transparency, security risks, social interactions) while maintaining faith in human intelligence and the opportunities that industry, education, healthcare or the start-up sector are in.
One area of interest has been social media, where AI can play a central role in connecting people and facilitating interactions, for example through recommender systems, rather than building a dystopian future where we are all disconnected and isolated. Another aspect explored during the event was the integration of AI across industries.
Nerea Luis, AI expert, highlighted how AI can connect different industries and people involved in the whole process, revolutionize workflows and drive innovation. She highlighted the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration between engineers, software developers, computational linguists, journalists, marketers, and more
Machine learning operations also caught the eye as this expert explored the potential of strategies to retrain models and ensure their continuous improvement, given the importance of keeping models alive and adaptable to evolving data, optimizing their performance to stay relevant in dynamic environments.
Transparency and accountability were key issues discussed at the event. Nerea Luis points out the potential of writing documents with clear explanations of the experimentation process, thus contributing to the transparency of AI development. By documenting the decision-making behind AI systems, biases can be better identified and mitigated, leading to more responsible AI technologies.
The significance of auditing processes in technology was also discussed. Esther Paniagua underlined the importance of implementing rigorous audit procedures so that potential risks and biases can be identified and adequately addressed.
Career opportunities
The event also shed light on emerging career opportunities at the intersection of social sciences and computer science. Paniagua underscored the importance of combined degrees that blend disciplines such as natural language processing, computational linguistics, AI and biotechnology, IA and business, etc. These interdisciplinary careers could hold enormous potential in driving innovation, leveraging AI for societal advancements and respond to the new realities and challenges around us.
Macarena Estévez recognized the growing importance of job creation to ensure the ethical development of AI and to control or mitigate biases to enable a more inclusive and responsible AI ecosystem.
Another aspect the experts emphasized was the crucial role of the Open Source Community in improving the AI landscape. Thus, Nerea Luis recognized the strong community engagement, as well as the powerful movement of sharing AI models, repositories and collaborative work.
The panelists also stressed the need for governments to play a decisive part in regulatory matters and protect people from the potential negative impacts of AI. They also accentuated the position citizenship should play in demanding responsible governance, so human beings can live with dignity in the face of technological advancements.
Speakers expressed concern about placing all decision-making power exclusively in the hands of big corporations. Therefore, they called for balanced regulations ensuring that AI technologies are developed and used responsibly, with due consideration for ethical, societal, and privacy concerns.
In light of the rapidly evolving AI landscape, these experts highlighted the need to embrace a lifelong learning approach and upskilling to adapt to the changing technological scenario.
The expert panel also spotlighted new opportunities in the Spanish start-up ecosystem, showcasing the potential of generative AI, as well as advances in Sport tech, where AI can be used to analyze training and practice, transforming the way users improve their performance. Additionally, they discussed the promising prospects on computer vision and the transformative potential of AI in generating images, despite the ongoing debate related to property rights.
The intersection of AI and blockchain also sparked the panelists’ interest, as they discussed the options of combining these two technologies. Besides, the speakers drew attention to the emerging «one-person start-up» approach, where an entrepreneur can create a start-up and support its management with AI tools.
The «Women in Tech – Fireside Chat about AI» event served as an inspiring platform for attendees, most of them women, to gain insight into the challenges and opportunities in the AI terrain. It must be accepted that despite the uncertainties that may arise, there is a large number of chances to be explored, harnessed and transformed into tangible advances that may benefit individuals and society as a whole.
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