"Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future,” was the first UN theme of International Women’s Day in 1996. This year, the theme is #DigitALL: advancing women’s gender equality in the digital age. With AI tools, like ChatGPT most recently, and most famously, transforming how we all work and live, almost overnight, we must ensure gender diversity among those creating these technologies.

When asked: “Can AI bots help close the digital gender gap?” Here’s how ChatGPT responded:

“Yes, AI bots like ChatGPT have the potential to help close the digital gender gap by increasing access to information for individuals, regardless of their gender, reducing the gender gap in access to digital resources. However, it's important to note that AI technology itself is not immune to gender biases and it's crucial to carefully design AI models to minimize potential biases.”

According to Statista, it took Twitter two years to hit 1 million users, Facebook – 10 months, and Instagram – 2.5 months. It took ChatGPT just 5 days to hit that number. The collapsing of timelines to merely days means we no longer have the luxury of “planning for the future,” instead we need to act fast.

AI technologies are only as good as the work we do to build them and the data sets that they are trained on. Some of the ways that we can improve emerging technologies to help close the digital gender gap include:

• Adopt a gender-responsive approach to design and evaluate the knowledge of machine learning software and emerging technologies.
• Deploy more diverse and inclusive data sets to train the AI programs on the wide range of experiences, issues, and perspectives of women and gender diverse individuals.
• Invest more in digital education and digital skills development for young girls and women to dismantle the barriers preventing them from being involved in the development of transformative technologies.
• Find more meaningful ways to involve women and gender diverse individuals in digital policy dialogue and facilitate the exchange of their experiences to prevent the perpetuation of systemic gender biases.
• Communicate effectively so women and gender diverse individuals know about and can realize opportunities in technology. And then hire them or invest in their businesses - they are core to this critical work.

Ultimately, closing the digital gender gap also requires addressing broader socio-economic and cultural challenges that contribute to gender imbalances and inequality. Ensuring those creating new technologies represent diverse perspectives and lived experiences is the first step.

Carpe Diem.

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