Artificial Intelligence Has a ‘Sea of Dudes’ Problem

Earlier this month, Bill Gates took the stage at the Recode conference to talk about philanthropy with his wife, Melinda. They discussed mobile payments, contraception, and billionaires giving away their fortunes. Then the conversation turned to artificial intelligence, and Gates grinned and swiveled in his giant red leather chair. "Certainly, it's the most exciting thing going on," he said. "It's the Holy Grail. It's the big dream that anybody who's ever been in computer science has been thinking about."

Melinda patiently waited for her husband to finish extolling the virtues of machines that can solve problems scientists haven't programmed them to know. Then it was her turn. "The thing I want to say to everybody in the room is: We ought to care about women being in computer science," she said. "You want women participating in all of these things because you want a diverse environment creating AI and tech tools and everything we're going to use." She noted that just 17 percent of computer science graduates today are women, down from a peak of 37 percent.