Q&A: Are Women the Future of Coding?

BIZTECH: The tech industry has long had a gender imbalance. How does the mission of Black Girls Code help address that problem?

MANCINI: I think we can agree that we are not doing a great job overall in getting Black and brown women to opt into tech. The work I do is preparing girls for these roles. Not just to get hired but to lead. 

We start by reminding our communities that tech is for them. We get families involved to advocate for our girls. We’ve had parents and aunties raise their hands and say, ‘Are there tech programs we can join so that we can be a part of this?’ We also educate families on how learning these skills can help with salary increases; you can go from making $11,000 to $60,000 annually in a year.

Our workshops, training and accreditation programs help women, but it’s also the support and the coaching. It’s making sure that their portfolios are right and that they are getting practice for interviews. We even have a “code your own self portrait” course, where the girls code their own images and put it on their business cards.

BIZTECH: You’ve worked in film and entertainment, tech and now, nonprofits — all in a leadership capacity. How would you describe tech’s diversity problem?

MANCINI: Not having demographics in rooms where technologies are developed isn’t just bad for business, it’s harmful.

Less than 2% of these executive technology roles are held by Black women. And it drops off a cliff when you start looking at AI, and that is touching every industry. All you need to do is Google “harmful AI black,” and you will get some horror stories. We’re all charging toward AI without a consideration for who is coding our future.

BIZTECH: Speaking of AI, businesses of all sizes are in a race to roll out these initiatives. But done too hastily, the execution can backfire. What are some of the dangers of not having inclusive voices in the AI development and engineering process?

MANCINI: Think about the fallout from the Meta “Liv” chatbot, who is supposed to be a queer, Black woman. However, while engaging with Liv, users discovered that Liv also loves fried chicken, collard greens and spilling the tea. There was backlash and speculation that Liv was developed by white men who would say anything to drive engagement.

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BIZTECH: You’re referring to reviewers who called Liv “digital blackface?”

MANCINI: Yes. Now, think of how dangerous that becomes in mental health, in banking and in schools. The Washington Post recently reported about wrongful arrests that were driven by face recognition technology. Another study from Forbes found that AI bias caused lenders to be 80% more likely to reject Black applicants.

BIZTECH: What are some ways that IT leaders could reduce AI bias?

MANCINI: If you just remove race from coding, we’re back on track — but it’s not quite that simple. Chatbots are trained on an aggregation of data around cultural vernacular, language and keywords. There’s an incredible girl on LinkedIn named Aliyah Jones who tested racial bias. After a period of unemployment with no interviews, she decided to create a catfish, fake profile, and suddenly her interview invitation rate went up to 57%. Why? According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, ethnic names receive 50 percent fewer callbacks for interviews.

BIZTECH: Is it all AI’s fault, or are we also partly to blame? If AI models are supposed to replicate our experiences, how can we govern that data so it’s more accurate?

MANCINI: These technologies are far from perfect. Right now, these AI tools are only given the information they have based on past history. Why are we not doing a better job of being thoughtful about creating spaces where we have a voice and we own our own data? 

That’s why women of all backgrounds need to be in the room to make sure that a full, dimensional data set is there. Google recently rolled out its Pixel campaign, which recognized more skin tones, and this is ultimately the difference between skin cancer being detected or not on darker skin. If you’re building out the data sets, it’s like a story, and you can see when someone is missing.

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BIZTECH: In terms of this identification piece, what steps can IT leaders take to help ensure that Black and brown women see themselves in this emerging technology?

MANCINI: The work has to continue. We need technologies that don’t put us in a box, that create space for us to grow. And everyone needs to have a say in how the technology is developed.

And it happens not by one rags-to-riches story of one woman who is given a rare opportunity. It’s gradual and additive. When technologies are built by us for everyone, things change. When you think of what a future could look like with Black and brown women involved in AI development, it’s about creating technology that is safe, inclusive, equitable and joyful for everyone. 

BIZTECH: What would you say to skeptics who say AI is too advanced? Or that the system isn’t set up to allow for this level of change?

MANCINI: It’s not too late to do this. I spoke recently at Princeton, and I asked if there was a Sam Altman in the room, and there was like an audible gasp. Why not? When I ask people who’s coding their future, the question is, should it be you?