ALD News: Two great events and the future of Ada Lovelace Day
Join me online to talk about the future of women in tech and the relationship between sci-fi and AI. And please help me preserve the ALD archives!
Hi there,
I’m excited to say that I have two great events coming up that I think you’ll love! Both events are online and free, so open to anyone in a compatible timezone. Why not sign up now!
Friday 16 May: Ada Lovelace and the Future of Women in Tech
11:30 – 12:15 BST
Online
Free tickets
What is the future for DEI and women in tech?
I’ll be speaking at The Nottingham Tech for Good Festival on Friday 16 May about Ada Lovelace, why it's important to embed DEI at the heart of your start-up or scale-up, how DEI can make your business stronger and more profitable, your legal obligations under the Equalities Act and upcoming Employment Rights Bill, and some simple but effective first steps to take.
All in 45 minutes! Good job I can talk quickly, because that is a lot to get through!
Tuesday 20 May: AI Dreams and Sci-Fi Nightmares
12:00 – 13:00 BST
Online
Free tickets
I’ll be taking part in a panel about AI and sci-fi at the King’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence Festival of Artificial Intelligence, online on 20 May.
If you've seen me talking about AI before, you'll know that I Have Questions. Artificial intelligence as a term has become muddied, so it's important to discuss the gulf between generative AI, which is a giant autocomplete based on analysing reams of stolen work, and the kind of machine learning that can help us find new drugs. And we can't talk about AI at all without talking about the massive impact it's having on our energy needs, right at a time we need to be reducing the energy we use so as not to burn the world to a crisp.
So please do join me, science fiction writer Stewart Hotston, Tiarna Lee who's researching bias and fairness in AI, and Prof Kawal Rhode from the school of biomedical engineering and imaging sciences for what I know will be a fascinating conversation, all hosted by the Arthur C Clarke Award’s Tom Hunter.
The future of Ada Lovelace Day
It’s been nearly six months since I made the painful decision to close Ada Lovelace Day, but it’s clear now that it was the right choice.
When I was struggling to find enough funding back in 2022, and before that in 2019, enough companies stepped up to the plate to make it financially viable to continue. This time, the response has been crickets. Gender equality seems to have fallen off pretty much everyone’s radar, whether under influence from American HQs or because companies are trying to save money in an uncertain economy.
But there are still expenses attached to keeping the Ada Lovelace Day website and newsletter going, which total about £1,300 a year. And there’s still work to do, including the two events above for which I’m not being paid, and another that I’ve been invited to, in person, in June.
If you could chip in a fiver over at GoFundMe, then I can continue to maintain the website and can give the events I’ve been invited to the attention that they deserve. And if I exceed the goal, then I can also do more work on new ways to support women in STEM which I can then share with you and the wider community.
But, if I don’t reach my goal, I’ll have to take the ALD website down and close the newsletter completely, and that would be a genuine shame.
As always, if there are any companies that would be interested in sponsoring the website and newsletter so that we can secure the archive for the future, please do get in touch.
Thank you, as always, for your support!
All the best,
Suw