Name: Cherie Blair and Helle Thorning-Schmidt discuss AI and gender equality
Uploaded: 2025-05-07T00:28:59.297Z
Duration: 3 min 24 s
Description: Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the former prime minister of Denmark and co-chair of the Oversight Board, and Cherie Blair CBE KC, founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, discuss how to advance gender equality.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the former prime minister of Denmark and co-chair of the Oversight Board, and Cherie Blair CBE KC, founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, discuss how to advance gender equality.

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The release of Open AI's ChatGPT has accelerated the development of artificial intelligence and warnings about its impact on society.

Rise of AI

Cherie Blair, a barrister and founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, and Helle Thorning-Schmidt, former Prime Minister of Denmark and co-chair of the Oversight Board, recently convened to discuss artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications for gender equality. At the World Economic Forum (WEF), where AI discussions are prominent, both women expressed the need for increased female participation and education in AI and technology sectors. The data indicates that a higher percentage of men use generative AI in daily life compared to women, and men also lead more AI-related businesses.

The conversation highlighted the disparity in gender representation within AI and technology fields. Blair emphasized the importance of a women-centric approach to entrepreneurial learning. She noted that without visible female examples in technology, women might feel excluded from these opportunities. According to a World Economic Forum report cited by Thorning-Schmidt, achieving gender parity could take over 130 years despite evidence of its potential to generate wealth and safety.

Both Blair and Thorning-Schmidt expressed concerns about the slow progress towards gender equality, blaming a lack of trust in various societal systems, including governments and media, as a significant barrier. Thorning-Schmidt pointed out the contradictory role of social media, which can have both positive and negative impacts on women's equality. The discussion underscored the urgency of overcoming trust issues to achieve equal opportunities in society.



Cherie Blair and Helle Thorning-Schmidt discuss AI and gender equality

Discussions around A.I. are dominating things here at WEF. But what does the rise of A.I. mean for women's rights? I sat down with the barrister and philanthropist Cherie Blair and Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the former prime minister of Denmark. There's so much power that women can have, but there's so many barriers that prevent them from doing that. Women are affected like everybody else. Last year, what was their biggest problem? It was the world economy going down. The year before that, it was Covid. This year, we've been asking them about technology and particularly A.I. and generative A.I. And what women are asking for is the chance to participate. They want to learn. They want to know how can we use this to improve our businesses, to improve the lives of our community. And when you look at the figures, if you look at generative A.I., men, over 50% of men are now using it in their personal and private lives. For women, it's more like 30%. And if you look at the businesses that are in that, twice as many men are doing businesses in A.I. than women. For women, I think so much of the learning and the education and the examples of entrepreneurs are about men. So we very much focus on a women-centered approach. The journey of the entrepreneur where they learn about the things that they need to learn about, it's a woman. And therefore, it's saying to women, this is about you. Men have no problem saying, oh, that's about me too. But for women, it does seem as though if they can't see it, they're not told this is something women can do. It's a real, it kind of puts them off. But Hela, there's a report from the World Economic Forum that's saying that it's going to take over 130 years to get gender parity. It's ridiculous that with all the evidence that we have, that gender parity could make us so much wealthier, make us safer, that we don't take the last steps to make that happen. And every year, we come to the World Economic Forum and debate these issues. So I'm very concerned. I'm very concerned that we're not moving faster. I see that. We see that everywhere. And to a certain extent, social media, which has so many positive sides to it, and also for women, is also having negative sides, which is exacerbating these issues. And in terms of trust, I think it's important that we discuss trust very clearly and understand that most people, when they wake up in the morning, has a default sentiment of not trusting anything. They don't trust governments. They don't trust systems. They don't trust capitalism. They don't trust democracy. They don't trust the media. They hardly trust the NGOs anymore. People don't have any trust. And in that world, it is, of course, harder to fight the good cause for equity, for equal opportunities for men and women, for democracy, all these things. So we have a severe challenge ahead of us.

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Rise of AI