Let’s celebrate our women in AI with the inaugural Women in AI (WAI) Awards across Australia and New Zealand. Our very own Megan Tapsell, Louise Taylor and Michael Witbrock are part of the fantastic Advisory Group of AI thought leaders and influencers under the Patronage of The Hon Julie Bishop and Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell. Together, this advisory group endorses and supports the awards, which will for the first time, recognise and honour women who are leading, creating, working and demonstrating innovation in AI across industry, government, universities and research institutes.
The global WAI mission is to address gender bias, promote diversity and inclusion by recognising and honouring women in AI and encouraging more women into the sector. We need many more women in the field and having visible role models in which people can see themselves, but we must lift our talented womenfolk up to be seen! Please nominate fellow women working in AI – with 11 categories there is plenty of scope to recognise the female talent in New Zealand. Applications close 14 December.
It’s fantastic to read about all the wonderful AI based approaches being created to help the world move through this terrible covid ridden time. In the United Kingdom (UK), for example, the Government plans to use an AI based tool to help sift through adverse reactions to their COVID-19 vaccine. Another clever twist on diagnosis based models is now showing it can detect asymptomatic Covid-19 infections through cellphone recorded coughs. This will provide a very convenient screening tool for people that don’t suspect they are infected!
Healthcare is set to be a huge benefactor of AI, but due to the sensitive nature of the data involved it has been a tough battle for solution providers to gain traction. So, it’s great to read that during a hospital trial, an AI platform reduced hospital admissions by over 50 percent.
In almost every article about AI, there is usually a comment about the speed of change or advancement in AI. This is true, but are you aware of how this happens? Aside from the huge shift’s Quantum will bring, this is a great read for those who want to know more about the evolutions of AI. For our mathematical lovers, you may be interested to read that AI has cracked a key mathematical puzzle, being partial differential equations, which are notoriously tricky to solve, but help us understand our world.
NZTech have launched a website for the Digital Technology Industry Transformation Plan (DITP). As previously mentioned, the AI Forum is privileged to be the key partner in the National AI Strategy and Data Driven Innovation streams of the DITP. We’re currently helping with the scoping of these streams, before wider engagement can take place, but rest assured we will soon be calling on you for your input. Working with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and other industry and Government partners, you can use this site to keep abreast of all the streams and get involved.
Our annual meeting is coming soon and that means election season is now upon us! You will have received an email detailing how you can vote – please don’t forget to use your vote. Please register to attend our online annual meeting on 24 November at 4pm. We will update members on the AI Forum’s strategy and plans for the coming year, plus the announcement of our new Executive Council members.
Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua.
Emma
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