To view a recording of the webinar, please click here.
Earlier this week, Access Partnership hosted “Women in Tech Policy: Glass ceilings and sticky floors – not in the metaverse!”. The event was an online panel discussion held in collaboration with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. The event, which garnered hundreds of registrants, featured an expert panel comprising Mark Esposito, Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer at Nexus FrontierTech, Alexandra Hussenot, CEO and founder of Immersionn, and Valentine Goddard, a UN AI Policy and Governance expert and member of Canada’s Advisory Council on AI.
The event was introduced by Lucia Asanache, a member of the Tony Blair Institute and moderated by Simona Lipstaite, Access Partnership’s Director for UK and Europe. Prominent topics in the webinar included the discussion of challenges around inclusion in the metaverse, as well as talks regarding the need for the metaverse to be more diverse and representative for all humans, with increased female presence a key topic.
Given the importance of female advancement in the virtual world application space, discussions revolving around the inclusion and protection of women in immersive technologies was an important talking point throughout the online event. Valentine expressed the need to bring AI to women, stating that “bringing the metaverse to an area where women are working, are funded, and seeing how they’d like to use that space and fund that as a sandbox” would likely encourage women to participate in the metaverse. Access, as well as education, are challenges that governments and civil societies will need to address if they wish to see more female representation in the metaverse.
As the event highlighted, there are notable concerns regarding the metaverse’s ability to correct power imbalances in the world and AI. During this discussion, the speakers were of the same mindset in that we need to see more governance if we wish to see significant improvements in the metaverse. Along with improved governance, better moderation in the metaverse would breed more representation, and would provide women with an opportunity to participate in a safe, and diverse metaverse.
To view a recording of the webinar, please click here.
