Information School News

Womanthology Magazine Womanthology is a digital magazine and professional community powered by female energy and ingenuity. It champions equal recognition and reward for everyone, sharing opportunities, ideas and a deep pool of collective wisdom – supporting each other to be unstoppable. Dr Caitlin Bentley , Lecturer in AI-enabled Information Systems, features on the Womanthology website this month.  Caitlin joined the Information School in 2020, as a lecturer in AI-enabled information systems. Prior to that, Caitlin worked at the 3A Institute, Australian National University, where she contributed to the development of a branch of engineering to manage artificial intelligence at scale and make a positive impact. Caitlin previously worked within the area of information and communications technologies for development. You can read Caitlin's feature about 'Making AI systems more inclusive from a gender perspective' on Womanthology here.

When it comes to chatbots and humanoid robots, women appear regularly. They have names like Alexa and Siri – chatbots gendered as women, but designed by male dominated teams.  Chatbot technology and robotics are evolving rapidly, and women are there but not as makers. Instead, men are responsible for re-coding women's identity within technology – amplifying gendered issues from the past – and without inclusion of real women's voices.  The Information School is working with feminist network Women Reclaiming AI to create a platform for women to reclaim their voices in AI. The team will design a collaborative statement on how women in AI wish to be (or not be) represented in a technology-driven present and future.  The project will bring together women from across the globe to assert their own needs, wants and desires within technological development.  Dr Caitlin Bentley , Lecturer within the Information School, is helping to create the statement. She said, “we want...