Girls Who Code CEO Tarika Barrett says AI skepticism can be a strength

Girls Who Code has worked for more than a decade to prepare young women for tech careers and improve gender parity in computer science. The rise of artificial intelligence is creating a new set of challenges, including student pessimism about AI and uncertainty about what coding will mean. Many graduates are not excited about working with AI, and some students boo when large language models are mentioned. Even computer science majors face reduced demand for coders as AI automates parts of software work. Women show greater apprehension, driven by concerns about errors, energy use, and the influence of tech billionaires, contributing to a gender gap in AI adoption. Girls Who Code emphasizes using these concerns to shape its approach and believes AI quality depends on who builds it.

"For more than a decade, the nonprofit Girls Who Code has sought to help prepare young women for jobs in the tech industry and push for greater gender parity in computer science. The arrival of artificial intelligence, though, promises a new era of organization, one that involves wrestling with student pessimism about the technology-and a shift in what it even means to code."

"To say the least, many young graduates aren't excited about working with AI. Instead, students-primed by tech executives who say their frontier labs stand to automate away many careers-are booing graduation speakers who bring up large language models (LLMs). Even computer science majors who still want to join the ranks of Silicon Valley face an uncertain future, since AI is rapidly reducing the number of coders that companies actually need."

"Another incommodious dynamic is that women, disproportionately, seem to be biased against using the technology. There are myriad reasons for this apprehension: Many are anxious about AI's capacity to make errors, or are turned off by AI's energy demands and its potential to supercharge the already-massive influence of tech billionaires. As a result, there seems to be a gap in AI usage, particularly along gender lines."

"“We have a deeply held belief that the quality of our technology, the future of AI in particular, depends on who's going to build it,” says Barrett, who will be leaving the organization this summer. “It means that young people should be at the forefront, given its impact on every possible sector of our lives.”"

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