This article was originally written in 2017 by Lauren D'Ambra, former editor at Emerj.com.
Women in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), or the lack thereof, is not a new topic in media, just as gender equity and disparity in the workplace is not a new subject of research for academics and think tanks. But discussing these issues openly is no less important. While we address the potential reasons and implications of these issues toward the end of this article, our initial interest in this subject came from our desire to know the following: