On 15 May, with Microsoft and Telstra, we hosted a roundtable to discuss some of the key findings on the Digital Sisters AI for Good consultation process. Our focus was on identifying how we can help migrant and refugee women benefit from AI and new technologies.
Have a look at some photos of that day.
Throughout the consultation, we have spoken with experts, academics, community organisations, and government representatives to find some common points in how we can use AI to close the digital divide, the biggest challenges we are facing and how we can make sure these new technologies don’t have a negative impact on digital inclusion.
Since February, we have engaged with over 30 of our Network Partners from across Australia. We’ve talked to academics from various universities and institutions, government entities such as CSIRO and eSafety, more than 10 non-profit organisations, and members of the corporate sector.
The May roundtable was a crucial part of our consultation process. It was a real pleasure to bring leaders from across sectors together to understand and learn more about AI, AI literacy and how we can use this new technology to close the digital divide in Australia.
We want to extend a big thank you to everyone who has been involved in the consultation and roundtable. The conversations have been critical in helping us learn more and find common ground on how we can use AI to close the digital divide for good.
Check out this video of our CEO, Jess Wilson, sharing more details about the consultation and some of the key findings so far.
The full report about the findings of this process will be available in July. Stay tuned!
Video transcript
What have we been doing?
Over the last few months, we’ve been talking to people from the community, people that are participating in our Digital Sisters program academics, people in industry and tech companies, academia and government to find out what people really think about what AI is what AI Literacy is and how it can support people to improve their digital inclusion or whether is actually going to exacerbate it.
Some findings from our consultations so far
I think what we found is that everybody has a slightly different perspective on what AI is and what AI Literacy should include. But, ultimately, people do agree that it’s really important that everybody understands what AI is and how it can be used to benefit their lives.
Also to be really aware of the risks of AI, and in particular how to stay safe in the world of AI. That it’s really important that people understand where data goes, what data is used to build AI and mostly just people need to give it a go and make sure that they’re not further left behind.
What’s really important, though is that, you know, AI doesn’t in itself overcome digital exclusion. In fact what we know people still need the technology. They need to be able to afford the internet. They need to have some essential skills to be able to use technology before they can get the real benefit out of AI.
Why is this important and how I can get more details?
It’s been so important because I just think, you know, we are in a real transition, it’s another key development in technology that’s really shaping the way that our society is built, and so we absolutely do not want people to be left behind, so now is the time for us to really understand how we can support people to come along with us on this journey.
People can read more when we finalise our report! We’re having a roundtable this week. I’m super excited to bring together people from our community partners, academia, government, senior tech leaders, to actually have a conversation about what we found in our initial consultations and then hopefully, at the end of July, somewhere around July we will have a report that we release about what we found.