2023 was a year we saw the exciting and terrifying speed at which technology can truly change the world in the form of generative AI. The hype has been split between hope and horror as it has permeated public consciousness, became an arbitrator of the future of the workforce, and torpedoed any sense of safe predictability. Yet we are told it is only just getting started.
It was also a year of mass societal and geopolitical division, a widening pay and poverty gap, and a notable reduction in efforts focused on Diversity Equity and Inclusion. As we begin 2024, all predictions centered on the rapid application of generative AI and the continued state of flailing society, the looming question is whether one can solve for the other. Will generative AI serve to lessen or heighten our nation’s problems, precisely the fundamental issue of equality?
Long time female equality advocate Reshma Saujani decided she wasn’t going to wait to find out. As the founder of Girls Who Code and Moms First, Saujani has dedicated her career to building movements to fight for female equality and advocate for the inclusion of women in the technology sector. She has long battled for a level playing field and highlighted the reality that young girls and women often don’t have the systemic support to partake, to begin with. She saw generative AI as a massive breakthrough in the leap it presented in that it can be transformative due to its direct utility for everyone. She sought its simplicity to help tackle one of the most significant issues women face today, paid leave.
In December 2023 Saujani and her team at Moms First launched PaidLeave.ai, a first-of-its-kind chatbot designed to tell New Yorkers exactly how much paid time off they’re entitled to and help guide them through the application process. A tool remarkably easy to use, it uses AI to generate a straightforward answer to a complex question which creates transparency and tactical support for mothers and families who truly need it.
I spoke to Reshma Saujani about the role of AI as an equalizer for women in the workplace, how one step forward can have broad scale impacts, and her vision for AI as an enabler of transparency and meaningful change.
What if the tool itself can help close the poverty gap?
Saujani says her biggest fear around AI and its impact on women, is that doomsday talk could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Her stance is ‘if we focus on a world where only the worst happens, it very well might.’ Instead, she believes “this is not a time to fixate on risk but instead lets be very intentional with how we use this technology, lets put it in the hands of women, people of color, and low-income communities and allow them to take part from the beginning.” The most fundamental challenge she sees is the ongoing childcare crisis, which keeps women out of the workforce, curbs their earning potential, and severely limits their career and personal choices. She shared examples of students she met through ‘Girls Who Code’ who would have to leave early or miss the program to help care for siblings at home. “Seeing these girls challenged not by potential but by the circumstance was a big aha moment for me,” she says, “I realized it’s not about being capable, qualified or good enough. The structures do not allow women to succeed.”
That is why she saw it as imperative that what supports do exist be overtly advertised, yet the opposite was true. “I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve heard moms say: I wish I had someone to walk me through this, or I couldn’t figure it out, so gave up trying,” she says. “The cost of inaction is hugely significant, amounting to an average loss of $10,000 in wages through lost entitlement. This is particularly problematic when you consider the women often with the least amount of structural support like those working multiple jobs or part-time lower paid roles who need this the most, that money can be life changing to a family.”
She approached OpenAI CEO Sam Altman with the idea, ‘What if the tool itself can help close the poverty gap?’ Altman saw the opportunity immediately and connected her with Novy.ai – an OpenAI-connected startup that helps scale AI projects, and together with Craig Newmark Philanthropies, they brought this tool to life. The system uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 to help parse the query, translate any language, and determine eligibility based on unique circumstances. An action plan of required forms and documentation is emailed to the user. Saujani believes that every dollar retained by parents is a step forward towards a better future for their families and a better America. Each user of this tool benefits not just themselves but the cause for paid leave at a national level.
The ripple effect:
This is because we know the many proven economic and social benefits of increasing and retaining mothers in the workforce. Reshma Saujani believes that access to affordable childcare and paid leave could be an even bigger feat to the American economy and innovative thinking than AI itself. Paidleave.ai is a small step to demystify paid leave. Still, a monumental one to help retain women in the workplace, which will in turn increase visibility and representation. Saujani says, “you build the movement by giving more women access, you step by step create pathways to federal change.”
A fairer America at a federal level:
However, the path to paid leave at a federal level has been 100 years of discussion with zero meaningful progress. The US remains the only developed nation globally without a federal policy to guarantee paid leave. Reshma Saujani is far from naïve to this challenge but sees no value in continued exasperation. Instead, she is taking the ‘if we build it, they will come’ approach with Paidleave.ai by demonstrating the value of change through increased uptake and resultant economics. She shares her experience talking to governors across the US, who point to low uptake of paid leave in places where it does exist, which, in her view, misses the most fundamental challenge of all, availability does not equal accessibility! “We are dealing with pregnant women and exhausted parents already completely overwhelmed and left to navigate patchwork systems of dense, government-penned legal jargon” she says, “its hardly surprising they give up.” By putting the information at their fingertips, Paidleave.ai aims to drive meaningful change by enabling demonstrable action.
What’s next for this technology?
For Reshma Saujani and the team at moms first they want to focus on rolling out paidleave.ai in all 13 states (plus DC) where paid leave is eligible. In doing so, they plan to bring proof to the broader movement of keeping and promoting women in the workforce and move the narrative away from partisan politics in favor of a sense of morality for equality that is backed by data. Saujani shares she also hopes this tool may be the first but far from the last of its kind in debunking systemic challenge and giving a much needed portion of society access to transparency to solve critical problems. “Think about what a tool like this could do for healthcare, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or educational access or bodily rights?” she asks, “imagine a world where the most vulnerable were granted awareness and empowered to create their own change.”
One thing is for sure, in looking at the incredible simplicity and resolve this tool brings to a systemically rooted problem, we should be excited to find out.