Having spent a decade dedicating her life’s work to the creative technology industry, Kerri Anne Walker has created the TechItLikeAGirl initiative to empower, inform and bring women to the table in the Information Communications and Technology (ICT) space.

“I’m really what you call a creative technologist. So, it is a merger of using technological tools, building processes, apps, and websites for creative purposes. But, essentially, the TechItLikeAGirl initiative is a public education initiative that is designed to inform people because I do think girls in particular, but people generally, need to have a healthier relationship with technology,” she said.

“Even something as simple as getting your pictures on Instagram, they can use something as simple as your selfie and create a digitised version of you doing kinds of things that you never actually did. And I think girls in particular need to be aware of these things to know how to fight back and to know how to decipher what is real and what is not. Women are particularly vulnerable to some of the pitfalls of modern technology. So, I created the TechItLikeAGirl initiative to really add my voice as a woman to the conversation and to tell other women to do the same,” she added.

AI is a field which combines computer science and robust datasets to enable problem-solving. But while studies show that it can benefit women and improve their position in the job sector by eliminating gender prejudice in recruiting and recruitment, Walker is of the belief that women are vulnerable to the pitfalls of modern technology.

As such, she is raising awareness and hoping for change in the sector.

“We see a lot of what is happening on social media and we forget that technology is there to serve us; it is there to make our lives better, our work better. It is not the other way around. I think information will help us to do that. It is a free social impact initiative that is designed to change our mindset and to reframe how we interact with technology because, again, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is really growing rapidly right now,” Walker told OBSERVER ONLINE, adding that she started the initiative during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Walker, who is a second-generation black woman in tech, followed the footsteps of her mother, who is a pioneer in the industry. She started coding through online courses at age 13 while attending Wolmer’s Girls’ School in Kingston.

She expressed that it is essential for black people to be at the forefront of the conversation in the tech industry.

“For example, in the space now where they have a lot of these cameras and AI technology that pick up criminal faces, it is not tested and designed with a lot of black people at the table. So, black people are racially profiled with the technology because you don’t have a lot of black people at the table. So, similarly, women need to ensure they have a seat at the table. I think in STEM, generally, we don’t promote it enough to girls. It is just not seen, at least in my time,” Walker said, noting that women are taught the arts, while some venture into law, medicine, teaching, nursing and fashion.

She also wants more women to occupy a space in ICT.

“I think that IT, especially coding and that type of thing is seen as difficult and we don’t tend to promote logic-based things to girls properly. We tend to promote the arts and everything else. I think we should do better at that by starting them early with robotics and I know that STEAM House does a lot of work with young people, but I think we need more initiatives that speak to women in particular,” Walker explained.

She is urging the continued encouragement of young Jamaicans to engage in technology and the development of the country’s digital infrastructure, adding that technology is the new industrial revolution and that economically speaking, will take Jamaica where it needs to go.