Justice Ginsberg advocated for gender equality. Nice of you to celebrate her contributions. Maybe Pandora could go a little further than recognizing others' contributions. Pandora, with its reach and influence has potential to change the world, even if just a little. But maybe a lot. I'll share my experience from today to explain what I mean. I noticed something while listening to Pandora while I worked today. ME: Hey Google. Play Bonnie Raitt. GOOGLE: Playing a station called Bonnie Raitt on Pandora. It's pretty good. Lots of mellow singer-songwriter tunes to soothe and nurture creative productivity. Along with Bonnie, some Patty Griffin, Norah Jones, Amos Lee, Chris Stapleton, Stevie Nicks, John Prine. What you would expect. Later in the day I wanted to mix it up a bit. ME: He Google. Play Bob Scneider. GOOGLE: Playing a station called Bob Schneider on Pandora. It was pretty good too. More mellow singer-songwriter tunes. Along with Bob, some Counting Crows, Paolo Nutini, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews, Colin Hay, and some more Amos Lee and Chris Stapleton. It 's been playing for hours and not one female artist so far on Bob Schneider's station. Not one female singer . . . unless you count back up singers who aren't usually credited as the songwriter. I did not expect that and find it disappointing. Maybe you need more female programmers writing your code as it seems like bias (likely inadvertently) is built into your algorithm. I would expect that the artists collect some form of credit for each stream on Pandora, although I confess I do not know the details of your business model. But far more males were streamed through my Google mini than females. I suspect this is a largely a problem of a shortage of female programmers and less of a shortage of female songwriters. I really can't say for sure, but gender equality has a long way to go and it's stunning that AI in the 21st century is so obviously biased toward showcasing male musicians. Thank you for listening. Best of luck driving diversity in your team. So much is possible if it is made to be intentional.
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