How are women shaping the future of artificial intelligence?

The international forum “TECHNOWOMEN CENTRAL ASIA: AI FUTURE”, which was held in Astana at the International Financial Center, became an important event for discussing the practical application of artificial intelligence (AI) in business and society. The forum brought together several thousand participants, both offline and online, representing various fields of activity and expert communities.

Artificial Intelligence is one of the main trends of our century, which can change the life of every person in the next couple of years, carrying enormous opportunities and the same risks, so it is important now that everyone understands and begins to adapt to the new future.

This is the first broad discussion that brought together international and Kazakh experts from the IT industry, representatives of government agencies, cybersecurity, higher education, NGOs, legal scholars and cultural experts.

The event took place from April 17 to 19 within the framework of the USAID project for the development of entrepreneurship and the business environment, with the support of the National Commission for Women and Family and Demographic Policy under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Ministry of Digital Development and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Astana IT University and the International Technopark “Astana Hub”.

The general sponsors of the forum were Yandex Kazakhstan and Freedom Holding Corp., official partners were Kcell JSC, Huawei, EPAM, media partners were Bluescreen.kz, Bes.Media, Digital Kazakhstan, The Tech, which held live broadcasts for several days and covered the events.

Within the framework of the 3-day forum the following were held:

• Round table with representatives of government agencies and the expert community “Artificial intelligence: positive opportunities and potential risks”
• Forum for the general public
• Round table for representatives of higher educational institutions
  Master classes on the use of AI, attended by more than 300 women
• Motivation day for students
• As part of the Forum, the best projects of 12 girls who completed their training under the “Tech Girls” program, implemented with the support of the National Commission for Women and Family and Demographic Policy under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the International Technopark “Astana Hub”, were pitched. Also, together with the Robotec center, a competition for girls in robotics was held. The team of girls who won the competition received a grant for training from the UBES School of Engineering and Programming, as well as valuable prizes.

As part of the forum, the results of the “TechnoWomen Leaders 2023” competition were summed up; the winners were:

The winners in the “Digital Empowerment Volunteer” category were: the Kinergy Public Foundation for the Technovation Girls project and the National Association of Women Entrepreneurs ASMAR for their contribution to the development of women’s entrepreneurship in the regions;
The winners in the “Women’s Digital Education Excellence” category were: International Technopark “Astana Hub” for the “IT Ayel” project – training women in none code and low code programming, more than 2000 women participants. The Akyl Ayim project from Kyrgyzstan to train more than 600 women in rural areas in digital skills, implemented by TechnoWomen KG.
In the “Digital Technology Excellence” category, Sabira Kulchimbaeva won with the “Banana mama” project, which helps women prepare for childbirth using digitalization.
Memorandums were signed by “TechnoWomen”, the school “Robotec” and the online platform Lerna for the development of digital competencies of girls and women.

To support flood-affected residents of the regions, the NGO “TechnoWomen” launched the “Zhalgyz Yemessin” project, which is focused on solving three problems – collecting gadgets (modems, tablets, laptops) for schoolchildren so that they can continue distance learning, launching an online psychological and medical care, collection of hygiene products and infant formula.

Based on the results of the forum, a report with theses and presentations from speakers will be prepared and publicly published.