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As Artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly present in people’s lives, one advocate says it can\u2019t be ignored, especially given the implications on gender equality.<\/p>\n
Persistence Theatre celebrated International Women\u2019s Day a few days early with a luncheon and a keynote speech from Sister Elizabeth Davis, who focused her remarks on the emerging technology and how it touches on gender.<\/p>\n
“Women are significantly underrepresented in the ownership, research, programming, training and shaping of AI,\u201d she told audiences at the Delta Hotel in downtown St. John\u2019s on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd my message to you, my plea, to you, my begging to you, is we must imagine and use more creative and effective ways to ensure that AI is imbued with women’s perspectives, experiences and values.”<\/p>\n
In an interview with CBC News after her address, she said people need to become knowledgeable about AI and how it\u2019s increasingly impacting our lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether your son is in the war in Gaza or in the war in the Ukraine or now in the war in Iran, whether your grandfather is looking at going into a nursing home, all of those seemingly totally unconnected matters are all influenced more and more by the presence of artificial intelligence,\u201d said Davis.<\/p>\n
Davis noted how AI appears in many different aspects of life, whether users realize it or not, which led her to question where gender fits in.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I began to look more and more at that, I realized that women, who are over 50 per cent of the people on Earth, have very little say in how AI is created, how it’s shaped, how it changes, how it’s implemented, who’s involved in it,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n
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2026 marked the fourth annual International Women’s Day Luncheon hosted by Persistence Theatre in St. John’s. (Mark Cumby\/CBC )<\/p>\n
Davis\u2019s address stressed AI has the power to be a democratizing force for equality, but also acknowledged its potential to intensify pre-existing gender biases.<\/p>\n
During the luncheon Persistence Theatre announced Sharon King-Campbell as its new producing artistic director, who emphasized the importance of Davis\u2019s address.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Sister Elizabeth Davis\u2019s speech was extremely pertinent to right now. I think about AI every day,\u201d King-Campbell told CBC News.<\/p>\n
\u2018My hope always is for a better world\u2019<\/p>\n
Being involved in the Persistence Theatre event and discussing issues openly with others is important to Davis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve always said that women’s superpower is our ability to network, that we get so much done by talking to each other, by sharing stories, by sharing concerns,\u201d Davis said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI love to see the energy that grows as we explore the dimensions that unpack the layers. So today’s audience was a wonderful example of that.”<\/p>\n
Davis said March 8 shouldn\u2019t be the only day gender equality is top of mind, either.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we celebrate International Women’s Day, it should never be a day. What it is, is a moment in time that allows us to gather our energies back, to reignite our hopes,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n
Davis said she\u2019s inspired seeing young people in different fields succeed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy hope always is for a better world. I’m not naive. I know there’s so much that works against that. And yet I see so many signs of hope,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also important she passes on her own knowledge, including by speaking at events like the luncheon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to share that whenever I’m asked and whenever I can, as long as I can,\u201d Davis said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Download our\u00a0free CBC News app<\/a>\u00a0to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador.\u00a0Click here to visit our landing page<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-519671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}