In the words of Beyza Doğuç: "Passion knows no gender; we must eliminate the invisible walls that prevent young women from recognizing their interests in fields traditionally dominated by men"
Date:
Beyza Doğuç is a 27-year-old musician, feminist, writer and IT specialist working on AI-related projects from Ankara, Turkey. She is working on audio-reactive AI visuals for live shows, exploring the boundaries of human and AI art through music creation, and has written a book featuring a main character controlled by AI. Beyza believes that recognizing AI gender bias not as a bug but as a reflection of our society can help us use these insights to better understand and address our biases.
"My journey was fortunately supported by my family who never doubted my capabilities due to my gender. They encouraged me to pursue my dreams in technology, which was crucial, as outside my family, there often seems to be a need to justify how a woman could be involved in technology. This experience highlights a broader societal issue where women in tech must often confront and overcome gender-based expectations and prejudices.
My passion for both art and technology has always been present. While my artistic endeavors were readily accepted, my technological pursuits often led to surprise and skepticism, especially because I am a woman. When discussing my tech pursuits, questions about who taught me suggested that it was unusual for a woman to have these interests independently. Unlike the acceptance of my musical talents, my tech abilities were often scrutinized until people learned about the male influences in my life, like my father and partner, both software developers. This often led to a realization or a nod of understanding as if it only made sense because men were involved."
Beyza is working on audio-reactive AI visuals for live shows, exploring the boundaries of human and AI art through music creation, and has written a book featuring a main character controlled by AI.
"My projects always incorporate AI to better understand myself and my artistic reflections. To prevent gender bias in AI, we must first address gender bias in our society. We need to strive for equality and balance so that AI training data can be free from our biases. Even if AI is programmed to be ethical and impartial, it still reflects our society's prejudices, which makes self-reflection crucial.
AI should be accessible to everyone and not monopolized. Ethical discussions and thorough evaluations of concerns are necessary to guide the direction of AI development. We need to engage with AI technology actively to shape its integration into our lives and discover what works best for us."
Beyza says that recognizing AI gender bias not as a bug but as a reflection of our society can help us use these insights to better understand and address our biases.
"AI gender bias reflects societal norms since AI is trained on human data. It mirrors the biases present in our society, manifesting in AI training data and outputs. This bias can appear in various forms, such as assigning professions based on names or stereotyping gender roles in family scenarios. Moreover, we need more girls in ICT because there are many who are passionate about technology but hesitate due to societal prejudices. Encounters with young girls who are inspired by my work and now see a future in ICT underscore the importance of breaking down these barriers. Passion knows no gender; we must eliminate the invisible walls that prevent young women from recognizing their interests in fields traditionally dominated by men."
Beyza collaborated with UN Women Türkiye to draw attention to gender bias in AI (Turkish, English) and recently served as a jury member in the Data Visualization and Advocacy Hackathon for Gender Equality co-organized by UN Women Türkiye with Association for Monitoring Gender Equality (CEID), Dissensus Interdisciplinary Research and Consultancy, and Tandans Data Science Consulting.