#20: UNESCO's developments on Artificial Intelligence and Gender Equality with Saniye Gülser Corat

AI Asia Pacific Institute Podcast

"We need to make gender equality more explicit and we need to position gender equality principles in a way that provides for greater accountability." — Saniye Gülser Corat

Saniye Gülser Corat served as Director for Gender Equality at UNESCO from September 2004 to August 2020. She is the lead author of the landmark 2019 study “I’d Blush if I Could: Closing Gender Divides in Digital Skills in Education”, which found widespread inadvertent gender bias in the most popular artificial intelligence tools for consumers and business. This report sparked a global conversation with the technology sector, culminating in a keynote address at the 2019 Web Summit in Lisbon, the largest annual global technology conference. As a result of her report and address, Gülser was interviewed by more than 600 media outlets around the world, - including the BBC, CNN, CBS, ABC, NYT, The Guardian, Forbes, Time. She published UNESCO’s follow-up research in August 2020. This report, “Artificial Intelligence and Gender Equality” is based on a dialogue with experts from the private sector and civil society and sets forth proposed elements for a framework on gender equality and AI for further consideration, discussions and elaboration amongst various stakeholders. The Digital Future Society named Gülser one of the top ten women leaders in technology for 2020.

During her tenure at UNESCO, Gülser launched special campaigns and programs for girls’ education in STEM and digital skills, the safety of women journalists, and the advancement of women in science. She successfully led change at UNESCO, convincing the 195 member states to recognize gender equity as a global priority for the organization, and achieving gender parity among senior leadership that stood at a mere 9% when she joined UNESCO.

Gulser has deep and broad cultural fluency with OECD and emerging markets, having run projects in her native Turkey, Europe, Canada, Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. She holds graduate degrees from Carleton University, Canada and College of Europe, Belgium and Executive Education certificates from the Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School.

Gülser is a TED and international keynote speaker. She serves on the boards of Women’s Leadership Academy (China), International Advisory Committee for Diversity Promotion, Kobe University (Japan), UPenn Law School Global Women’s Leadership Project (USA), and Exponent, a global gender equality incubator. Based in Paris, she is a strategic advisor to Coopersmith Law + Strategy for technology, education, multi-laterals, and gender equality. She speaks Turkish, English and French.

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