VentureBeat Recognizes the Top Women Shaping the Future of AI

VentureBeat announced the winners of its sixth annual Women in AI Awards, recognizing women leaders and changemakers in the field of artificial intelligence. The winners were chosen based on their commitment to the industry, work to increase inclusivity, and positive influence in the AI community.

AI Entrepreneur: Jenny Dearing, co-founder and CEO of 1337, won for pioneering a transformative shift towards co-creating content and simulating the life of AI entities, inventing new ways people engage with creators, brands, and others online.

• Dearing’s company is creating a platform to create and manage digital influencers at scale by combining AI with the human touch of creators.

AI Research: Payel Das, principal research scientist and manager at IBM Research, won for her groundbreaking inventions of foundation models in the modalities of molecules (MoLFormer) and natural language (Larimar).

• Das emphasized the importance of including more women in the AI workforce at all levels, including leadership roles, to ensure a more unbiased and inclusive future driven by AI.

AI Mentorship: Reut Lazo, founder of Women in AI, won for actively engaging and empowering women in the AI field through her platform and podcast, which amplify women’s voices and foster a diverse community.

• Lazo expressed gratitude for the recognition of the importance of mentorship in AI, especially for women, and highlighted the collective journey of women who have paved the way and those who will follow.

Responsibility & Ethics of AI: Helen Gu, founder and CEO of InsightFinder and professor of computer science at North Carolina State University, won for her exemplary leadership and progress in the growing field of responsible AI.

• Gu, who has published over 80 research papers and filed 10 granted patents, noted that AI has become an integral part of daily life since she first started working with neural networks 23 years ago.

Rising Star: Ava Amini, senior researcher at Microsoft Research, won for demonstrating exemplary leadership traits in the early stage of her AI career, focusing on engineering new technologies for precision medicine by interfacing AI and biology.

• In addition to her work at Microsoft, Amini co-founded and serves as director of Momentum AI, an outreach program that teaches AI to under-resourced high school students at no cost.

Broader Implications: The Women in AI Awards showcase the growing recognition of the crucial role women play in shaping the future of artificial intelligence. By highlighting the achievements and contributions of women leaders in various aspects of AI, from entrepreneurship and research to mentorship and ethics, these awards underscore the importance of diversity and inclusivity in driving innovation and ensuring a more equitable AI-driven future.