To offer AI-focused ladies teachers and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time within the highlight, TechCrunch is launching a collection of interviews specializing in outstanding ladies 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 right here.
As an AI knowledgeable on the Group for Financial Co-operation and Improvement (OECD) and the International Partnership on AI (GPAI), a world initiative to advertise accountable AI use, Tiedrich develops approaches for AI that consider and handle danger whereas aligning legislation, coverage and practices with science. She’s served on Duke College’s college and suggested quite a few firms, and was a longtime associate on the legislation agency Covington & Burling LLP.
Tiedrich, a tech transactions and mental property legal professional, additionally served on the Biden Marketing campaign Coverage Committee and is registered to follow earlier than the USA Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO).
Lee Tiedrich, International Partnership on AI
Briefly, how did you get your begin in AI? What attracted you to the sector?
I’ve been working on the intersection of expertise, legislation and coverage for many years, beginning with mobile, then web and e-commerce, by as we speak. I’m drawn to serving to organizations optimize rising expertise advantages and mitigate dangers in a quickly altering and sophisticated authorized atmosphere. I’ve been engaged on AI issues for years and lengthy earlier than it dominated headlines, starting once I was a associate 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 subject)?
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 clear up these urgent challenges. This work started whereas at Covington, engaged on AI
governance and different issues with shopper attorneys, engineers and enterprise groups. Extra not too long ago, as a member of each the Organisation for Financial Co-operation and Improvement (OECD) AI and International Partnership on AI (GPAI) world knowledgeable 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 how you can handle 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, firms and others. It’s very gratifying to assist put together the subsequent technology of AI leaders to handle multidisciplinary AI challenges.
How do you navigate the challenges of the male-dominated tech business, and, by extension, the male-dominated AI business?
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 ladies electrical engineering college students. I used to be additionally the twenty second girl elected to the Covington partnership, and my follow targeted on expertise.
Navigating male-dominated industries begins with doing nice modern work and confidently making it recognized. This will increase demand in your work and usually results in extra alternatives. Ladies must also concentrate on constructing good relationships inside the AI ecosystem. This helps domesticate essential mentors and sponsors in addition to purchasers and prospects. I additionally encourage ladies to make use of their community to proactively pursue alternatives to develop their data, profile, and expertise, which might embrace collaborating in business associations and different actions.
Lastly, I urge ladies to put money into themselves. There are lots of sources and networks that may assist ladies navigate and advance in AI and different industries. Ladies ought to set objectives and determine and capitalize on sources that may assist them achieves these objectives.
What recommendation would you give to ladies in search of to enter the AI subject?
There are such a lot of alternatives within the AI subject, together with for engineers, knowledge scientists, attorneys, economists and enterprise and authorities affairs specialists. I encourage ladies to seek out a side of the AI subject that they’re obsessed with and pursue it. Folks typically excel extra once they work on issues they care about.
Ladies additionally ought to put money into creating and selling their experience. This could 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 a lot of alternatives for younger professionals to rapidly develop into an knowledgeable. Ladies ought to proactively pursue these alternatives. Constructing experience and an excellent skilled community might help.
What are a few of the most urgent points going through AI because it evolves?
AI holds a lot promise to advance world prosperity, safety and social good, together with serving to handle local weather change and serving to obtain the UN Sustainable Improvement objectives. Nonetheless, if not developed or used correctly, AI can current security and different dangers, together with to people and the atmosphere. Society faces the grand problem of creating 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 expertise transcends borders, worldwide harmonization is essential, too. Requirements and different instruments might help advance worldwide harmonization, significantly as authorized frameworks differ throughout jurisdictions.
What are some points AI customers ought to pay attention to?
I not too long ago called for a world AI studying marketing campaign in a chunk I revealed with the OECD. It explains the pressing want for customers to develop into conscious of the advantages and dangers of AI purposes they intend to make use of. This data will empower them to make higher selections about whether or not and how you can use AI purposes, together with how you can mitigate dangers.
Moreover, AI customers ought to know that AI has develop 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 programs made out there 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. Additionally they ought to diligence third-party AI programs 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 essential steps. It begins with publicly embracing and upholding good accountable AI values to function the North Star, comparable to 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 specialists. The governance framework ought to issue within the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and different essential steerage, along with making certain compliance with relevant legal guidelines. As a result of the AI authorized and expertise panorama modifications 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 firms. To start, they need to embrace accountable AI as an funding precedence. Along with being the precise factor to do, it’s good for enterprise. Market demand is rising for accountable AI, which ought to enhance 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 their company board appointments. More and more, company boards are increasing oversight of expertise issues. Additionally they ought to contemplate structuring investments to incorporate different oversight mechanisms.
Moreover, even when not addressed within the funding agreements, traders can introduce portfolio firms to potential accountable AI hires or consultants and encourage and assist their engagement within the ever-expanding accountable AI ecosystem.