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As a part of TechCrunch ’s ongoingWomen in AI series , which seek to giveAI - focused womenacademics and others their well - deserved — and overdue — fourth dimension in the limelight , TechCrunch interviewed Marissa Hummon , the main technology police officer at the energy company Utilidata , where she is work to make the electric grid more sustainable .
“ The body of work that I ’m doing at Utilidata is pushing against the status quo of the utility industry , ” Hummon told TechCrunch , lend that AI is poised to help the utility sector operate more in effect . “ It will give utilities the tools they necessitate to manoeuver a clean , New , and reliable grid that will better serve the mass and businesses connected to it . ”
Hummon started her life history at the National Renewable Energy Lab , where she focused on how to move the energy industry away from carbon paper - intensive solutions to more clean sources . She recalled having to take a new modeling approach because certain physic equations were “ unresolvable using traditional analytic method . ”
“ Instead we needed to habituate numerical method acting and machine scholarship , ” she said . This was back in 2010 .
Advice to women
Hummon moved her way up , working at the energy company Tendril before landing the CTO function at Utilidata , a position she ’s held since 2018 . She received a PhD in applied physics from Harvard and said that as she made the transition from grad school into the technology battleground , she acknowledge a significant drop in the number of char process in the field . “ I ’ve often felt the pressure of being held to a high standard in the work compared to my virile peer , ” she say .
Hummon said now as a leader she seek to precede by example and produce opportunities for fair sex to lead and be recognized . At the same metre , men require to be responsible for creating space for more women to go into and quell in the field , she said .
“ The alteration we need is not just in practice ; it must be systemic and widespread , ” she stay on . “ It starts with recruiting and hiring , continues with mentor and coaching , and culminates with fair and equitable recognition and promotion — all while create a secure and inclusive work . ”
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Her advice to char entering the AI field is to always remember that being a womanhood can be an reward . “ It ’s given you a linear perspective that ’s different from your male peers and breakthroughs in engineering always come from singular view . ”
She enounce to seek opportunity with companies that have shown their commitment to diverseness and that have loss leader who have showcased their efforts to support women and minority . “ pronounce a possible employer by the way they show up in the interview process , not by the assertion or the report they put on their web site . ”
Building ethical AI
Hummon said that users should fuck that AI is not something that can clear all trouble but rather is an practiced assistant to enhance operation , improve effectivity , and aid support .
“ Recognizing its limitations and ensuring there are proper checkpoints is cardinal , ” she said .
She aver it ’s always important to understand how generative AI was trained and built for interpret any possible prejudice it could have . “ This cognition is a powerful tool when working with spoken communication mannequin for data psychoanalysis and evaluating the feasibility of solutions , ” she persist in . “ AI is only as good as the datum and information it was trained on . ”
She also gave some lead on how to work up dependable AI , explaining that Utilidata made an early decision to keep all of its information local . “ Approaching model building using distributed AI computing reduces the amount and frequency of information being transmitted to the cloud and therefore reduces the chances of a security or privacy break . ”
As for investor , she enounce — like all of the expert we spoke to — they involve to evaluate how a companionship want to use AI , especially since responsible for AI looks different in every industry . “ The investing in responsible AI should be commensurate with the risk of infection and complexity of any given party , not an across - the - board standard . ”
