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STORY: UN / UN WOMEN AI SCHOOL
TRT: 5:02
SOURCE: UN NEWS
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT ITU FOOTAGE ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 11 AUGUST 2025, BANGKOK / FILE
FILE – ITU - 08 JULY 2025, PALEXPO EXPOSITION AND CONVENTION CENTRE, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Various shots, AI for Good Global Summit 2025; Robotics for Good Youth Challenge Grand Finale 2025
11 AUGUST 2025, BANGKOK
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Emad Karim, UN Women’s Regional Advocacy & Campaigns Coordinator and Founder of the AI School:
“The AI school came out from that urgent need that we need to do something about the evolution of AI and to make sure that women and girls are not left behind. So in a way, we have this ambitious vision to position Asia and the Pacific as a trailblazer in AI literacy and innovation for gender equality, which meant that we need to start working within the house first, fixing the capacity building gap within our personnel, but also extending those to the UN system and our supporting civil society and young leaders to make sure that we have a movement that can shape AI, not just only as users, but also as designers, as contributor to building and AI for infrastructure that is inclusive, that is safe, that is responsible. That's also giving priority for women and girls.”
FILE – ITU - 08 JULY 2025, PALEXPO EXPOSITION AND CONVENTION CENTRE, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
3. Various shots, AI for Good Global Summit 2025; Robotics for Good Youth Challenge Grand Finale 2025
11 AUGUST 2025, BANGKOK
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Emad Karim, UN Women’s Regional Advocacy & Campaigns Coordinator and Founder of the AI School:
“We do have foundational classes about what is AI, how it manifests in our life, where can we see it, what kind of applications are there, foundational principles of responsible AI, and then more on the gender bias and how it's impact women. And then we get more technical into the school where we having classes on prompt engineering explaining what are the best prompt that can mitigate biases and make sure that we have less hallucination or proper from the models.”
FILE - ITU - 08 JULY 2025, PALEXPO EXPOSITION AND CONVENTION CENTRE, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
5. Various shots, AI for Good Global Summit 2025; Robotics for Good Youth Challenge Grand Finale 2025
11 AUGUST 2025, BANGKOK
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Emad Karim, UN Women’s Regional Advocacy & Campaigns Coordinator and Founder of the AI School:
“We prepare them for protected jobs, for insolated jobs, where they also need to transition from those jobs will have high chances of being automated or affected by AI to a job that will be assimilated or will be augmented by AI. So that transition would require policies were required investment and capacity building and in job training transitions and upskilling. But also we need to make sure that also the new generation of girls are prepared to a future that the current schooling system are not preparing them for. The world is changing and so they need to.”
FILE – ITU - 09 JULY 2025, PALEXPO EXPOSITION AND CONVENTION CENTRE, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
7. Various shots, AI for Good Global Summit 2025 venue
11 AUGUST 2025, BANGKOK
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Emad Karim, UN Women’s Regional Advocacy & Campaigns Coordinator and Founder of the AI School:
“Forty-four percent out of 133 AI systems that were analyzed exhibited gender bias. And that comes from bias in the data that the AI has been trained on because the data that AI has trained on is the whole Internet and our Internet is biased - it is less recognizing the contribution of women and girls; it has a lot of gender stereotyping where it has certain binaries of roles for men and for women. So the AI is learning from our historical bias and then exacerbate that bias and produce massive amount of outcomes with that bias, influence it. And then there is bias also in the design, the majority of the AI expert are men.”
FILE – ITU - 09 JULY 2025, PALEXPO EXPOSITION AND CONVENTION CENTRE, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
9. Various shots, AI for Good Global Summit 2025 venue
11 AUGUST 2025, BANGKOK
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Emad Karim, UN Women’s Regional Advocacy & Campaigns Coordinator and Founder of the AI School:
“AI now can teach women how to write code where they don't need a degree in computer science to be able to create their own website or application that could have a good opportunity for women entrepreneurs to get out of the risky investment in their project where they can test the ground with some of those AI tools, for example. It can give access to education, special education to customize education and learning that AI is enable us so that could also reduce the gap in education and give an opportunity for every woman and girls to catch up in their own pace.”
FILE – ITU - 09 JULY 2025, PALEXPO EXPOSITION AND CONVENTION CENTRE, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
11. Various shots, AI for Good Global Summit 2025 venue
Seeking a shift from fear to empowerment, earlier this year UN Women launched a first – an AI School aimed at equipping gender equality advocates with the skills to harness AI for social change, advocacy, and organizational transformation.
Artificial Intelligence is transforming the world at breakneck speed—and UN Women is making sure women aren’t left behind. Launched by their Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, the program’s reach is wide, targeting feminist leaders, climate justice activists, entrepreneurs, academics, and professionals from underrepresented communities. “We want women and girls at the policy table, in design rooms, and in every conversation shaping the AI economy,” Karim said.
“This started from the urgent need to make sure women and girls are not left behind,” said Emad Karim, who leads the programme. “Our vision is to position Asia and the Pacific as a leader in AI literacy and innovation for gender equality… not just as users, but as designers, contributors, and shapers of AI infrastructure that is inclusive, safe, and responsible.”
Emad Karim pointed to a glaring gap: “We looked at over 130 national AI policies - less than 24 even mention gender. Women and girls are almost invisible in this sector.” The School aims to change that, preparing participants to engage in policy-making, design gender-responsive AI, and address issues like bias and technology-facilitated violence.
The curriculum covers everything from AI fundamentals and responsible design to sector-specific modules like AI in communications, disaster risk reduction, and climate action. “We explain when AI works best, when it doesn’t, and how to adapt it for non-profit and development contexts,” Karim said. “It’s about knowing the tools, but also the risks - privacy, copyright, trust, and when human-led storytelling is more powerful.”
AI’s built in gender bias – it’s about the data models
Bias in AI is a core concern. “Out of 133 AI systems analysed, 44% showed gender bias,” Karim noted. “That comes from the data—and our internet is biased. With most AI designers being men, safety considerations for women are often missed. We’re seeing an increase in deepfakes, revenge porn, stalking… most of the victims are women.”
Yet, he sees opportunity: “AI can help women bypass traditional barriers. You don’t need a computer science degree to build a website or an app anymore. It can level the playing field in education, entrepreneurship, and advocacy—if we make sure access is equitable.”
Impact is already visible. Success stories from participants reveal a shift from fear to empowerment—participants who once saw AI as a threat now use it to develop gender-responsive innovations.
“One participant came in terrified of AI, convinced it would doom the world,” Karim recalled. “After training, she was using it to cut project timelines from weeks to hours, and she’d started speaking up in policy discussions. She told me it was eye-opening.”
The new literacy calls for being AI savvy
As the School expands, including to India, Karim stresses adaptability: “We customise content for each country, looking at their AI readiness, gender gaps, and national priorities. The goal is always the same—more women and girls at the table where AI’s future is decided.”
His advice to women in the AI era? “Be AI-literate—this is the new literacy. Know the models, the strengths, the risks. We shouldn’t trust AI blindly, nor reject it outright. The future of AI depends on us—on whether we design it for equality, justice, and dignity, or let it widen the gaps we’re trying to close.”
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