Ready or Not, 2026 Is Here: Priorities and Challenges for the New Year
with Rob Ribar
Can Technology Be Discriminatory and Unfair?
Sylvia Mukasa
Initially, I always assumed technology was used to do good - solve problems to the challenges humanity faces. I never realized that there is a dark side of technology and how deep the roots go. You see, none of us is born choosing their race, gender, citizenship and many other things that define us that we have no control of. Technology has contributed to making life easier through things like using mobile money, shopping online, making robotics arms for the disabled etc. However, technology has also been used to discriminate, using those very things that define us, to deny access to opportunities, services, control power and to commit other injustices/unfair practices.
In this chat, I want you to walk away with:
- A basic Understanding of what AI is - with a focus on Algorithms
- Examples of how Al can be discriminatory
- Actionable steps on how to combat this problem
Meet The Speaker
Sylvia Mukasa
Award-Winning Entrepreneur| Tech Consulting|TechWomen Fellow| STEM Champion|STE
An award-winning entrepreneur, Sylvia is Founder/CEO of GlobalX Investments Ltd/GlobalX Innovation Labs. GlobalX feeds into the innovation pipeline by closing the skills, funding and organizational or corporate digital transformation gaps. GlobalX’s core business provides opportunities for children, youth, developers & entrepreneurs to learn, innovate, and scale up their knowledge in hardware and IoT, AI, Robotics, Coding and other emerging technologies. In November 2020 she was listed under 30+ Most Influential Women in Tech by CIO East Africa. She was also named 2020 Techpreneur of the Year- Over 30 in the Founder of the Year Awards (FOYA) East Africa. She is Country Co-Founder/Chapter Lead (Kenya) for Women in Tech Africa (WiTA), the largest female technology focused group in Africa and 2018 winner of the UN’s EQUALS in Tech Award, Leadership Category. Sylvia is a TechWomen Fellow 2014, a Silicon Valley STEM program run by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs; launched by Hillary Clinton, former US Secretary of State. TechWomen empowers, connects and supports the next generation of women leaders in STEM from Africa, Central & South Asia, and the Middle East. She is active in the global and Kenya’s tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem. This earned her a special mention in the closing speech of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya by Maria Contreras-Sweet, former US Government’s Lead Minister on Entrepreneurship
