Lecture: 'AI and gender issues'

The adoption of AI is experiencing significant hype, in line with the disruptive period we are currently witnessing, where AI is playing a key role in digital transformation. However, although AI is a highly powerful technology with the potential to develop many applications to enhance well-being, address current challenges such as climate change, personalised medicine, or the digital economy, and build a better society, there are some gender impacts that require attention. The talk will provide an overview of the opportunities and challenges of AI in relation to gender. Drawing from 30 years of intensive AI research experience, Karina Gibert analyses the sector's evolution and the gender-related risks and opportunities it presents.

About the Speaker

Karina Gibert holds a degree and a PhD in computer science, specialising in artificial intelligence and big data. She teaches various subjects on statistics, multivariate analysis, data mining, data science, and intelligent decision support systems at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia-Barcelona Tech (UPC). She is co-founder and current director of the Intelligent Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (IDEAI-UPC) research centre and dean of the Official College of Computer Engineering of Catalonia. She also advises the Catalan and Spanish governments and the European Commission on ethics and AI, and she is an editor of the journal Environmental Modelling and Software.

Additionally, she is the director of the citizen outreach course ciutadanIA and the academic director of the Top Secret Rosies training platform, aimed at girls who have pursued STEAM careers, and participates in the UPC's Aquí STEAM programme. Karina Gibert has won numerous awards, including the DonaTIC Award 2018, honourable mentions for the Creu Casas Award in 2021 and 2022, the Ada Byron Award 2022, the WomenTech 2023 Award, and the National Award for Computer Engineering 2023.