Check Your Default Settings
Technology is still a baby. And not a chill one. Most of what we're calling the future is still running on V1 logic: trained on lopsided data, coded by a few overconfident engineers, and launched at scale without much reflection. Systems don't fix themselves. They just keep reinforcing what they were built to believe, unless someone steps in and changes the defaults. That is us.
From hidden permissions to algorithmic bias baked into the tools you use every day, most systems are profit-first, extraction-based, and allergic to nuance. Check out why I continue to build Business 4 Good, what I've learned helping women-led businesses actually use AI, and how to change the settings that were never designed for us as women, or for anyone, to thrive!
I Am in an Open (AI) Relationship with… ChatGPT
So I am in an open relationship with ChatGPT. Before you judge, hear me out. This is a love story. Sort of. It started innocently enough. I was curious. Everyone was talking about this new AI thing, and I thought, let me just see what the fuss is about. Next thing you know it is 2am and you are deep in conversation with a bot that somehow gets you better than your last three exes.
Seriously though, I set the (safety) terms, I advocate for my needs and boundaries and attempt to boss these bots, but I must admit, this chat boi is not exactly fully developed and can’t really follow rules…yet. So I have set off to build the Leading Ladies LLM because consent matters, even when the other party is an algorithm. The most fun you will ever have reading about data ethics, I promise!
Training the Bots to Be Better
The internet as we know it is not broken. It just wasn't built for everyone. AI is being built right now. If we do not actively shape its foundation with inclusion and ethics in mind, we risk a future where the digital patriarchy goes viral. No, thanks. If we are not in the room, the bias we have spent decades fighting gets an algorithm and a scale. Rose Kaz on why she built Business 4 Good, why the BIPOC funding gap is an AI problem, and what #Tequity does about it.
Thanks a Lot: Gratitude, Community, and the Systems We Accept
I give thanks weekly, sometimes even daily. I also find certain holidays to be a bit of a farce, followed immediately by one of the most massively marketed days of gross consumption as a national sport. I promise, this is a glass half full article. But gratitude lists are not enough and I think we can do better.
Bloom Scroll, Don't Doom Scroll: Women-Led Tech Is the Tool Towards Peace
We are the leaders we have been waiting for. From relatives fighting each other across borders to a deep fracturing of civic trust here at home, it is ever more clear that new leadership is not only a good idea. It is required. Women-led tech is not a niche. It is the infrastructure.
Feeling Inclusively Home
I really want you to know about where I've come from and why I am building this marketplace to be truly inclusive and feel like home, like Grandma's house. Everyone has a different version of home but often Grandma's house is safe, has some Big Mama energy and her own fair rules. That is what we are building here.
How to Be a Good Collaborator in Tech Without Even Being a White Guy
I look forward to the most collaborative year humans have ever seen. Though as I type this, I am not particularly thrilled with human collaboration as it stands. Big tech hasn't been built for anyone but the early pioneers of the internet's wild west frontier. And they've been claiming credit for the ideas of less known innovators for generations. Let's talk about that.