Prospects for gender parity in the data science and technology fields are looking optimistic, but there is still a long way to go.

Since it began in 2015, the Women in Data Science Worldwide Conference has grown into a worldwide organization and network for emerging female tech leaders. Only 20% of students in data science are female, however, and less than 10% of decision-makers in the field are women, a stunning statistic cited by theCUBE host Savannah Peterson (pictured, right).

“The models that are being developed today and the machines that are learning on them, the data there is often biased because we don’t have women in the room,” she said, emphasizing that inclusion is more relevant than ever with the rise of artificial intelligence. “The models actually exacerbate the lack of inclusion within our sector, and we need women in the boardroom representing vital issues at the highest level.”

During this year’s Women in Data Science Worldwide Conference, Peterson spoke with female leaders in data science about the fight for gender equality in the tech industry and the impact of developments in data science worldwide. They explored sustainability, gen AI, outer space, security and the importance of protecting vulnerable populations.

Watch Peterson’s full insights from the WiDS 2024 event:

Here are three key insights you might have missed from WiDS 2024:

1. Inclusion is key to sustainability.

The repercussions for lacking inclusion in the world of tech extend to our most pressing modern crises, including climate change, sustainability and the “digital divide” along economic classes and geographic borders.

“There is no sustainability without inclusion,” said Radhika Shah, chair of the Innovation Advisory Group and fellow of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Stanford University. “Sustainability is climate change, a sustainable way of living, where we nurture our planet and don’t destroy it. But also it is having voices at the table.”

As a founder of the United Nations Joint STD Fund Breakthrough Alliance, Shah is focused on tackling the 17 United Nations goals, which address issues including climate change, economic disparity and gender equality. Much of the WiDS conference focused on preparing our world for a future of climate disruption, even going so far as to keep space free of debris during a potential exodus.

“Everything I do right now is driven by doing whatever it takes to achieve the UN sustainable development goals,” Shah said. “We bring investors, impact investors, philanthropists, academics all together for catalytic dialogues on what is needed to be done and what can we all do together.”

Data science and technology can help foster such inclusion through programs that give users a voice in how their society is run. This includes a new platform where the average citizen can have input into micro-decisions, such as the city budget, according to Shah.

“If we collaborate as equals … we can do anything,” she said. “Digital innovation and data science enables us to actually collaborate from wherever we are, whichever corners of the world we are.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Radhika Shah:

2. Data integrity is crucial for protecting against AI cyberattacks.

It is impossible to quantify the impact gen AI has had on every aspect of the tech industry, but one of the most important aspects of fueling and protecting against AI-powered technology is data integrity.

“With some of the AI tools that have hit the market publicly, one of the biggest deficits is data integrity,” said Nicole Carignan, vice president of strategic cyber AI at Darktrace Holdings Ltd. “Your machine learning models are only as good as the data you’re training it on. Good data in is good data out. If you don’t have an exhaustive data integrity process, which is where our data science comes in, then you’re not going to have accurate output of AI.”

AI is already changing the cybersecurity threat landscape, with a 135% increase in novel social engineering attacks, according to Carignan, who also believes that AI could also help protect victims. Darktrace specializes in unsupervised machine learning techniques that defend organizations against cyberattacks with a more specialized approach.

“[With AI] we can contain incidents, mitigate the damage in machine speed, buying human defenders time to come in and actually perform a more complete investigation and remediation,” she said. “As adversaries are innovating with AI … we too, as defenders, should be doing the same thing.”

Keeping the human element in data science is still crucial, believes Carignan, who emphasizes that a diverse hiring practice is part of data integrity and security.

“We need to really buffer data science around the edges of AI in the beginning and the end, even in our case where we use unsupervised machine learning techniques, which is inherently human out of the loop,” she said. “That means the humans need to encompass it.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Nicole Carignan:

3. Data science leaders want to make the world a better place.

With a new wave of advancements in AI and data technology that can empower both good and bad actors, the leaders at WiDS are focused on using data science to improve people’s lives.

“How do you use data and math to solve problems around us to make everything better, the world better?” asked Hannah Pham (pictured, left), head of data science and product analytics, consumers, at Pinterest Inc. She describes the company as the “positive corner of the internet” because of its focus on making users’ lives easier.

New innovations in data science and AI can also help identify and support exploited populations around the world, including victims of human trafficking.

“It is an exciting time because we have access to a lot of technologies and tools that just were not available to us before,” said Kimberly Babiarz, research director at the Stanford Human Trafficking Data Lab at Stanford University, which harnesses nontraditional data to identify human traffickers. She emphasizes the need for AI to protect vulnerable populations. “It actually goes beyond ethics to human rights. How do we make sure that our AI and our data science research is actually working to improve people’s lives?”

Many of the guests drew attention to the importance of allies in the tech space when it comes to combating inequality and what Peterson calls the “unconscious bias in AI.”

“It shouldn’t be put[ting] all the responsibility on the women to put themselves out there to ask for help. I think as allies, there’s so much we can do,” Pham said. “Talk to the woman that you care about in your life. Understand what [they] need; ask how you can help.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Hannah Pham:

To watch more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE Research’s coverage of the Women in Data Science Worldwide Conference, here’s our complete video playlist:

Photo: SiliconANGLE