Can artificial intelligence help to bridge the gender-based digital divide in our future tech workforce?

That’s exactly the goal of a brand-new initiative by global tech education nonprofit Technovation.

In January, Technovation announced “The AI Forward Allance”.

The AI Forward Alliance challenges teams of girls, ages 8 – 18 , to use artificial intelligence to come up with an app that solves a real-world problem. (It’s also a completely-free program, accessible to any educators, community organizations and youth leaders who’d like to download the curriculum!)

“Our thought was, ‘why not bring all these voices together, to make sure women enter that global conversation around AI?'” explains Technovation Program Manager Abbey Mae Pitcher.

And the young participants have created some pretty incredible applications, addressing some of the real-world problems they’ve seen. Education, physical fitness, sustainability and entrepreneurship opportunities are just a few of the issues which their apps address.

Abby Mae shared the story of The AI Forward Alliance, talked about her creative journey as an educator working with Technovation and offered a preview of what’s next!

On this edition of Over Coffee® we cover:

• How Abbey Mae first became interested in science, and its applications to the “real world”;

• How Technovation is addressing the current gender-based gap in the tech workforce;

• The story of The AI Forward Alliance, and some of the AI-powered apps student teams are creating;

• What a youth leader can expect, when signing up a team of girls to participate in the AI Forward Alliance;

• Ways in which the program is accessible to more arts-oriented young women who may not see themselves as computer scientists;

• A step-by-step process to developing an app–especially for anyone who does not have coding knowledge!:

• Some of Abbey Mae’s favorite AI resources to recommend to educators and students;

• One of the best creative lessons she learned, from her experiences with Technovation.