Our GCSE and A-level Computer Scientists enjoyed a thought-provoking webinar from CISCO Systems to mark International Girls in ICT Day.
Under CISCO's Women Rock-IT brand, our students heard from two leading experts in the world of AI, as they explained how AI and their research is changing and challenging important global issues.
Elizabeth Bonni-Kerry, of Try AI, talked about her work on AI's social impacts, particularly in considering errors in AI systems. Elizabeth talked about the positive benefits of AI but also warned of the risks of over-reliance on AI and the risks of it leading to bad decision making.
Tanya Berger-Wolf, from Wild Book, delivered a fascinating talk on her work using AI in wildlife conservation. Wild Book has used AI on millions of photographs publicly available on social media to identify and track wild animals - not only animal populations but individual animals based on their unique distinguishing characteristics like spots, stripes and flukes. The AI has been used to monitor individual killer whales and whale sharks, to name a few. It was also used by the Kenyan authorities to count the entire Kenyan zebra population. Tanya talked passionately about applying this technology for good in conservation but also some of the potential pitfalls like the increasing carbon footprint of AI and even its potential use by poachers to try and find endangered species. A sobering example of the AI arms race.
The impacts of technology on society are an important part of the GCSE and A-level Computer Science courses and, of course, AI is a really hot topic with legal, ethical, privacy and environmental implications. This webinar was perfectly pitched to get our students thinking seriously about these issues and where they, as girls in ICT, might take the debate forward in the future.