AI scientist, entrepreneur, and investor Rana El Karioby worries that AI could become the tech industry’s new “boys’ club.” At the SXSW conference in Austin on Sunday, El Karioby shared her view that the lack of diversity in the field is putting women in tech at an economic disadvantage and could have further consequences.
“I think AI today is a boys’ club. I think diversity is not a very popular topic these days, but I think it’s very important because AI is creating incredible economic opportunities,” El Karioby said on stage when asked if the perception that AI is a boys’ club is a myth. (To demonstrate his point, the interviewer showed a series of TechCrunch headlines about AI startups with male founders.)
El Karioby, who sold emotion detection software company Affectiva in 2021 and is now co-founder and general partner of Blue Tulip Ventures, said three out of four investments in her company have been in startups with female CEOs.
“I don’t invest ‘only’ in women,” she clarified. “But I really try to find these female founders and support them in other ways, if not with a check, because they’re not getting the opportunities they deserve.”
“If women are left behind, because they’re not building these companies, because they’re not receiving the money, because they’re not even investing in the funds that are investing in these companies, five or 10 years from now, we’re going to look back and see that economic inequality has increased like crazy. So this is very concerning to me,” El Karioby noted.
She mentioned the current “unpopularity” of the topic of diversity in the wake of the Trump administration’s rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives, which then spilled over into the tech industry. These changes will not only impact how technology companies hire, but also how they develop products. In AI, for example, companies may feel pressure to align model output with White House priorities.
For El Karioby, she said, not only can a lack of diversity be an economic disadvantage, but the consequences are also important.
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“I do think we live in very exciting times, but I also feel strongly that if we don’t intervene, if we don’t really stand up for the things we value, like ethics and diversity of ideas and perspectives, and prioritize this human-centered idea…the results may not be great,” she added. “So we feel like this is a really important time for us to use our voice and our leadership to help shape our future direction.”
