Dr Rana el Kaliouby Author of Girl Decoded, interviewed by Mary Carty

The Irish Tech News Podcast

Dr Rana el Kaliouby Author of Girl Decoded

Interview by Mary Carty

Introduction

Hello everyone. I’m Mary Carty and I’m here today to interview a pioneer in AI technology with Irish Tech News. I’m so excited and honoured to talk to Dr Rana el Kaliouby.

Rana has been working on making computers and our interactions with them more human for 20 years. In other words, Computers have plenty of IQ, what if they had EQ?

She holds a BA from the American University in Cairo, A PhD from Cambridge, and worked at MIT Media Lab where she spun out her company Affectiva in 2009, thereby creating a whole new technology category of Artificial Emotional Intelligence.

Rana is a Forbes Top 50 Women in Tech and a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum

Her fascinating memoir, Girl Decoded, my quest to make technology emotionally intelligent and change the way we interact forever will be published by Penguin Business Books in April. Pre order it now.

QUESTIONS

1. The thing that impressed me the most reading your book, is your drive. Against all odds you were going to build this AI, where does this drive come from?
   
2. What are the advantages of leading with empathy, vulnerability, and kindness?
   
3. How can we encourage leaders to forge this path, not command and control, win at all costs?
   
4. I was struck by how much you had to "defeminize" your language around emotions in the early days with investors and funders. How do we find ways not to gender, products, services, and software and help investors and the wider community understand the benefits to society?
   
5. Finding investment for a startup is hugely challenging, especially for women. Turning down a government contract at a crucial time for the business must have been a difficult decision. Can you tell me a bit about that?
   
6. What more can we do as consumers to build better, more ethical AI?
   
7. What's next for you?
   

About the Author

Dr Rana El Kaliouby holds a BA from the American University in Ciaro, A PhD from Cambridge, and worked at MIT Media Lab where she spun out her company Affectiva in 2009, creating a whole new technology category of Artificial Emotional Intelligence.

She is a Forbes Top 50 Women in Tech and a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum.

Her memoir Girl Decoded, my quest to make technology emotionally intelligent and change the way we interact forever will be published by Penguin Business Books in April.

Find Rana on Twitter https://twitter.com/kaliouby

Affectiva https://www.affectiva.com/

Mary Carty Bio

Mary Carty is a serial entrepreneur with a background in the arts, education and technology. She is Director of Wilson & Keys working with an international client base. Mary sits on the Board of Science Gallery International and Branar Téatar do Pháistí.

Over lockdown, she established AwakenHub, a community to support female founders from the Island of Ireland and her diaspora, with Mary McKenna, Clare McGee and Sinead Crowley.

Find Mary on Twitter https://twitter.com/marycarty

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/marycarty/

Wilson and Keys http://www.wilsonkeys.com/

AwakenHub https://www.awakenhub.com/