Popularization of Science: Oxford Professor

The second half of 2019 was traditionally in the spirit of popularizing research and especially gender topics in science. The highlight of these efforts were two November lectures organized within the Week of Science and Technology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. At our invitation, Professor Gina Neff from Oxford University, came to address the social and political preconceptions encoded in the data used by artificial intelligence, and to show examples of how these systems incorporate human biases about women and their role in society. Her lectures on AI and gender provoked a great discussion both in the media and professional circles, as such a debate was completely lacking in the Czech public space. We are obviously pleased with the interest the lectures gained, the more so that in 2020, we plan to run a campaign on gender dimensinon in research and innovation. Prof Neff’s lectures were thus the first  of many activities the Centre is planning to carry out in order to highlight the benefits and in many cases the vital need to integrate sex and gender analysis in current research. If you are interested to learn more about the gender dimension in AI, here you can watch a video of Prof Neff’s lecture.