Girls In AI: Lee Tiedrich, AI skilled on the World Partnership on AI

To present AI-focused girls lecturers and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time within the highlight, TechCrunch is launching a series of interviews specializing in exceptional girls who’ve contributed to the AI revolution. We’ll publish a number of items all year long because the AI growth continues, highlighting key work that usually goes unrecognized. Learn extra profiles here.

As an AI skilled on the Group for Financial Co-operation and Growth (OECD) and the World Partnership on AI (GPAI), a world initiative to advertise accountable AI use, Tiedrich develops approaches for AI that consider and handle threat whereas aligning regulation, coverage and practices with science. She’s served on Duke College’s college and suggested plenty of corporations, and was a longtime companion on the regulation agency Covington & Burling LLP.

Tiedrich, a tech transactions and mental property lawyer, additionally served on the Biden Marketing campaign Coverage Committee and is registered to follow earlier than the US Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO).

Lee Tiedrich, World Partnership on AI

Briefly, how did you get your begin in AI? What attracted you to the sphere?

I’ve been working on the intersection of know-how, regulation and coverage for many years, beginning with mobile, then web and e-commerce, by means of right now. I’m drawn to serving to organizations optimize rising know-how advantages and mitigate dangers in a quickly altering and complicated authorized setting. I’ve been engaged on AI issues for years and lengthy earlier than it dominated headlines, starting after I was a companion at Covington & Burling LLP. In 2018, as business AI use and authorized challenges grew, I turned co-chair of Covington’s world and multidisciplinary
Synthetic Intelligence Initiative and concentrated extra of my follow on AI, together with AI governance, compliance, transactions and authorities affairs.

What work are you most happy with (within the AI discipline)?

Unlocking AI’s advantages and mitigating dangers requires world and multidisciplinary options. I’m happy with my intensive work that unites completely different disciplines, geographies and cultures to assist remedy these urgent challenges. This work started whereas at Covington, engaged on AI
governance and different issues with shopper legal professionals, engineers and enterprise groups. Extra just lately, as a member of each the Organisation for Financial Co-operation and Growth (OECD) AI and World Partnership on AI (GPAI) world skilled teams, I’ve been engaged on an array of high-stakes multidisciplinary AI issues, together with AI governance, accountable AI knowledge and mannequin sharing and tackle local weather, mental property and privateness issues in an AI-driven world. I co-lead each the GPAI Mental Property Committee and the Accountable AI Technique for the Surroundings (RAISE) Committee. My multidisciplinary work additionally extends to Duke, the place I designed and train a course that brings collectively graduate college students from completely different applications to work on real-world accountable tech issues with the OECD, companies and others. It’s very gratifying to assist put together the subsequent era of AI leaders to deal with multidisciplinary AI challenges.

How do you navigate the challenges of the male-dominated tech trade, and, by extension, the male-dominated AI trade?

I’ve navigated male-dominated fields for a lot of my life, beginning as a Duke undergraduate the place I used to be among the many few girls electrical engineering college students. I used to be additionally the twenty second lady elected to the Covington partnership, and my follow targeted on know-how.

Navigating male-dominated industries begins with doing nice revolutionary work and confidently making it identified. This will increase demand in your work and usually results in extra alternatives. Girls must also deal with constructing good relationships inside the AI ecosystem. This helps domesticate vital mentors and sponsors in addition to shoppers and prospects. I additionally encourage girls to make use of their community to proactively pursue alternatives to broaden their information, profile, and expertise, which might embrace taking part in trade associations and different actions.

Lastly, I urge girls to put money into themselves. There are lots of assets and networks that may assist girls navigate and advance in AI and different industries. Girls ought to set targets and establish and capitalize on assets that may assist them achieves these targets.

What recommendation would you give to girls looking for to enter the AI discipline?

There are such a lot of alternatives within the AI discipline, together with for engineers, knowledge scientists, legal professionals, economists and enterprise and authorities affairs consultants. I encourage girls to seek out a facet of the AI discipline that they’re captivated with and pursue it. Folks typically excel extra once they work on issues they care about.

Girls additionally ought to put money into growing and selling their experience. This will embrace becoming a member of skilled associations, attending networking occasions, writing an article, public talking or pursuing persevering with authorized schooling. Given the big selection of novel and difficult points AI
presents, there are various alternatives for younger professionals to shortly turn into an skilled. Girls ought to proactively pursue these alternatives. Constructing experience and a superb skilled community might help.

What are among the most urgent points dealing with AI because it evolves?

AI holds a lot promise to advance world prosperity, safety and social good, together with serving to tackle local weather change and serving to obtain the UN Sustainable Growth targets. Nevertheless, if not developed or used correctly, AI can current security and different dangers, together with to people and the setting. Society faces the grand problem of growing frameworks that unlock AI’s advantages and mitigate the dangers. This requires multidisciplinary collaboration, as legal guidelines and insurance policies must consider related applied sciences in addition to market and societal realities. Since know-how transcends borders, worldwide harmonization is vital, too. Requirements and different instruments might help advance worldwide harmonization, notably as authorized frameworks differ throughout jurisdictions.

What are some points AI customers ought to concentrate on?

I just lately called for a world AI studying marketing campaign in a bit I printed with the OECD. It explains the pressing want for customers to turn into conscious of the advantages and dangers of AI functions they intend to make use of. This information will empower them to make higher selections about whether or not and use AI functions, together with mitigate dangers.

Moreover, AI customers ought to know that AI has turn into more and more regulated and litigious. Authorities AI enforcement is increasing too, and AI customers could also be accountable for harms brought on by AI techniques made accessible by their third-party distributors. To cut back potential legal responsibility and different dangers, AI customers ought to set up proactive AI governance and compliance applications to handle their AI deployments. In addition they ought to diligence third-party AI techniques earlier than agreeing to make use of them.

What’s one of the simplest ways to responsibly construct AI?

Responsibly constructing and deploying AI requires many vital steps. It begins with publicly embracing and upholding good accountable AI values to function the North Star, reminiscent of these embodied by the OECD AI Rules. Given AI’s complexities, it’s additionally important to develop and implement an AI governance framework that applies all through the AI system lifecycle and fosters multidisciplinary collaboration amongst technical, authorized, enterprise, sustainability and different consultants. The governance framework ought to issue within the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and different vital steering, along with guaranteeing compliance with relevant legal guidelines. As a result of the AI authorized and know-how panorama adjustments quickly, the governance framework ought to allow the group to nimbly reply to new developments.

How can traders higher push for accountable AI?

Buyers usually have some ways to push accountable AI inside their portfolio corporations. To start, they need to embrace accountable AI as an funding precedence. Along with being the appropriate factor to do, it’s good for enterprise. Market demand is rising for accountable AI, which ought to improve portfolio firm profitability. Moreover, in our more and more regulated and litigious AI world, accountable AI practices ought to scale back litigation dangers and potential reputational harms brought on by poorly designed AI.

Buyers can also push accountable AI by exercising oversight by means of their company board appointments. More and more, company boards are increasing oversight of know-how issues. In addition they ought to take into account structuring investments to incorporate different oversight mechanisms.

Moreover, even when not addressed within the funding agreements, traders can introduce portfolio corporations to potential accountable AI hires or consultants and encourage and help their engagement within the ever-expanding accountable AI ecosystem.