Isha Karim is a rising junior at Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, California. She spends her time interning in research labs and working with nonprofits to make STEM more accessible to underserved communities. Isha is also the founder of rAIsing, a podcast dedicated to opening up the AI conversation to women in tech.

伊莎·卡里姆(Isha Karim)是加利福尼亚山景城圣弗朗西斯高中的一名初中生。 她花时间在研究实验室实习，并与非营利组织合作，以使服务不足的社区更容易使用STEM。 Isha还是rAIsing的创始人，该播客致力于向技术女性开放AI对话。

I had the opportunity to speak with Isha about her experiences in creating this podcast and her dedication to increasing diversity in the field of technology.

我有机会与Isha谈谈了她在创建此播客中的经验以及她致力于增加技术领域的多样性。

告诉我们您成长的社区。 (Tell us about the community you grew up in.)

Growing up in the Silicon Valley, I’ve witnessed the rapid growth of tech companies and the culture that have permeated into the Bay Area’s social convictions, prompting a different type of social ethic: one based on non-stop progress. Having been raised in this “bubble,” I definitely was not immune to living a fast-paced life. Born to immigrants working in the tech world, I spent most of my childhood living in a sea of suburbs. Because STEM fields reign supreme in Bay Area culture, other disciplines sometimes fall by the wayside, making my holistic education difficult. My parents hoped I would pursue interests similar to theirs, tech based occupations that brought them to this country. Despite being in a vibrant community of STEM interested peers, I constantly received disparaging comments on my computer science projects by my teachers. I once had a female teacher in my coding class tell my parents that I would never be able to code. It was primarily the discouragement and pressure I felt that alienated me from pursuing STEM.

在硅谷长大，我目睹了高科技公司的快速成长和渗透到湾区社会信念的文化，催生了另一种类型的社会道德：一种基于不间断进步的社会道德。 在这个“泡沫”中长大之后，我绝对不能幸免于快节奏的生活。 我出生于在科技界工作的移民，我童年的大部分时间都生活在郊区的海洋中。 由于STEM领域在海湾地区的文化中占据统治地位，因此其他学科有时会被抛在一边，这使我的整体教育变得困难。 我的父母希望我追求与他们带到该国的基于技术的职业相似的兴趣。 尽管我对STEM感兴趣的同学们充满活力，但我不断收到老师对我的计算机科学项目的贬低评论。 我曾经在编码班里有一位女老师告诉我的父母，我永远也无法编码。 主要是我感到的沮丧和压力使我脱离了追求STEM的过程。

In a community where being Asian does not quite classify me as a minority, I felt the scrutiny of exclusion in other places. Attending a predominantly white high school, I noticed people of color constantly being the butt of racially charged jokes and comments by my peers and my teachers. I was constantly questioned about my racial identity with questions like, but where are you really from? Constantly, I stuck out like a sore thumb in the classroom. Despite the best intentions of my peers, I felt like a foreigner in my own skin. Because of that, I’ve always longed to be a part of a community of like-minded peers, which is part of the inspiration behind rAIsing.

在一个亚洲人并不完全将我归类为少数民族的社区中，我感到受到了其他地方排斥的审查。 上一所以白人为主的高中时，我注意到有色人种不断成为我的同龄人和我老师的种族笑话和评论的源头。 经常有人问我关于自己的种族身份的问题， 但实际上你是哪里人 ？ 经常，我在教室里伸出拇指一样。 尽管我的同龄人有最好的意愿，但我仍然感觉自己像是一个老外。 因此，我一直渴望成为志同道合的同行社区的一员，这是rAIsing背后的灵感之源。

告诉我们rAIsing背后的故事。 是什么促使您创建和主持播客？ (Tell us the story behind rAIsing. What inspired you to create and host a podcast?)

My freshman year summer was my first introduction to artificial intelligence. It was an apprehensive adventure to navigate; not only was it my first introduction to high level coding, but it was also my first time in a community of women in tech. rAIsing was the brainchild of many past — and might I say, failed — projects. I developed speaking events and panels that had never come to fruition. Despite the endless replies of “no, this isn’t the time, maybe later,” I couldn’t allow the discouragement to deter my course. The more I worked in artificial intelligence, in research labs and nonprofits, the more I realized how inaccessible the field had become.

我一年级的暑假是我对人工智能的第一次介绍。 这是一次令人担忧的冒险之旅。 这不仅是我对高级编码的第一次介绍，还是我在科技界的女性社区中的第一次。 重新规划是过去(甚至可以说失败)许多项目的创意。 我开发了从未实现过的演讲活动和小组讨论。 尽管无休止地回答“不，现在不是时候，也许以后”，但我不能让灰心阻止我前进。 我在人工智能，研究实验室和非营利组织中工作的时间越长，我越意识到该领域变得越来越难以进入。

I wish I had a more glamorous story to tell, but rAIsing came to be through a Spotify ad. After another failed project pitch in the car ride home, I was listening to a podcast when an ad for a podcasting platform came on. It suddenly clicked. I frantically tried to remember the information in the ad so I could google it afterwards. To be honest, a podcast just made perfect sense. For years, I had listened to podcasts on my own. The ebb and flow of conversation garnered my interest in a variety of topics. For a few days, my brainchild took shape through hundreds of search tabs and bookmarked web pages.

我希望我能讲一个更光彩的故事，但是通过Spotify广告实现了收益。 在开车回家的另一个项目推销失败之后，当播客平台的广告出现时，我正在收听播客。 它突然点击了。 我疯狂地试图记住广告中的信息，以便以后可以在Google上搜索它。 老实说，播客是很有意义的。 多年以来，我一直独自听播客。 对话的潮起潮落引起了我对各种主题的兴趣。 几天来，我的创意通过成百上千个搜索标签和带有书签的网页得以形成。

Out of the thousands of podcasts on Spotify, I discovered there were none on girls in AI.

在Spotify上的成千上万个播客中，我发现AI中没有关于女孩的内容。

It only added fuel to the fire; I was convinced that it was my responsibility to highlight the stories of women in AI. With rAIsing being the first of its kind, creating and hosting it professionally was a welcomed challenge. A podcast isn’t as structured as a book, so it has more opportunities for interesting tangents and divergences that make the listening more unpredictable. With rAIsing, I want to provide not only a platform, but also a safe space where girls can come together and broaden the AI conversation. Like myself, I hope that all of my listeners decide to take charge and forge their own path in AI. Increasing access to and the number of female voices crucial to expand such a dynamic, versatile field. Because we intend to take up space.

它只会增加火势； 我深信在AI中突出女性故事是我的责任。 由于rAIsing尚属首次，因此以专业方式创建和托管它是一个可喜的挑战。 播客的结构不像书那样，因此它有更多机会进行有趣的切线和发散，从而使收听更加难以预测。 通过rAIsing，我不仅要提供一个平台，而且要提供一个安全的空间，让女孩可以聚在一起并扩大AI对话。 像我自己一样，我希望所有的听众都决定负责并在AI中开拓自己的道路。 增加女性声音的访问量和数量对于扩大这样一个充满活力的多功能领域至关重要。 因为我们打算占用空间。

创建rAIsing的最大挑战是什么？ (What was the biggest challenge in creating rAIsing?)

My greatest challenge was the narrative. I had a name, an idea, even a slogan, but I could not finalize what the angle would be. It was a difficult process to undergo, primarily because I had no mentor in the field who could guide me. Even as the team expanded from one to four to fifteen, our colorful online community couldn’t agree on what we should talk about. With no other idea, I drafted episode after episode on more technical topics, “Unpacking Neural Networks,” “The Hero’s Guide to NLP.” I couldn’t make it past 3 minutes without distractions. Clearly, this wasn’t working out. After I went back to the drawing board, I drew inspiration from the beginning of this journey. I wanted to share stories, not concepts. So, what is the narrative? We are the narrative, personal, not technical. I want our stories and opinions to shape our narrative, rather than let technique and concept dictate it. Instead of explaining complicated topics, we needed to focus on the people behind them. So we discussed stories of past scientists and held teen panels. The narrative, which was so bogged down in concept, became what matters most, our stories and experiences.

我最大的挑战是叙事。 我有一个名字，一个主意，甚至是一个口号，但我无法最终确定角度。 这是一个艰难的过程，主要是因为我在该领域没有任何指导我的导师。 即使团队从一人扩大到四人，再到十五人，我们丰富多彩的在线社区也未能就应该谈论的内容达成共识。 别无他法，我在更多技术性话题(“解开神经网络”，“ NLP英雄指南”)中逐集起草。 我无法在3分钟内无干扰地进入比赛。 显然，这没有解决。 回到绘图板上之后，我从旅程的开始就汲取了灵感。 我想分享故事，而不是概念。 那么，叙事是什么？ 我们是叙事，是个人的，不是技术的。 我希望我们的故事和观点能够塑造我们的叙事，而不是让技术和概念来支配它。 除了解释复杂的话题，我们还需要关注背后的人。 因此，我们讨论了过去科学家的故事并举行了青少年座谈会。 叙事在概念上如此陷入僵局，成为最重要的故事和经历。

AI is all about predicting the future. So when our world wants to do the same, I hope those around us listen to the voices shaping it.

人工智能就是预测未来。 因此，当我们的世界想要做同样的事情时，我希望我们周围的人听听塑造它的声音。

rAIsing中最喜欢的主题是什么？ 为什么？ (What is your favorite topic that was featured in rAIsing? Why?)

Every episode has its highs and lows, especially with the rollercoaster ride that is writing a podcast script! Personally, I enjoyed “Inquiring Minds,” where we discussed the intersection of science, politics, and society. Although these three topics seem completely unrelated, the episode unpacked how one school of thought impacts and drives another. In my opinion, I’ve always struggled with the singular approach many have to computer science: the skill of coding. Being an interdisciplinary student, I want to push the narrative that AI is so much more. My goal is to marry my interests in two seemingly opposing fields, STEM and political science. During the episode, we discussed the idea of STEM versus liberal arts. But it’s not a versus, it’s how we bring these two sides together. The notion that the liberal arts will rule the digital world is an homage to the fact that we need holistic thinkers. In the future, as technology solves more of the routine tasks, it actually forces us to become more human, more artistic, more creative, more empathetic, more communicative to solve and understand human problems.

每个插曲都有其高潮和低谷，尤其是在编写播客脚本的过山车中！ 我个人很喜欢“探究思想”，在那儿我们讨论了科学，政治和社会的交汇处。 尽管这三个主题似乎完全无关，但这一集揭示了一种思想流派如何影响和推动另一种思想流派。 在我看来，我一直在努力应对许多计算机科学所采用的单一方法：编码技能。 作为一个跨学科的学生，我想讲一讲关于AI的更多内容。 我的目标是将我的兴趣与STEM和政治学这两个看似相反的领域结合起来。 在这一集中，我们讨论了STEM与文科的关系。 但这不是对抗，而是我们将这两个方面结合在一起的方式。 文科将统治数字世界的观念是对我们需要整体思想家这一事实的敬意。 将来，随着技术解决更多的例行任务，它实际上迫使我们变得更加人性化，更具艺术性，更具创造力，更有同情心，更具沟通性，以解决和理解人类问题。

Unpacking AI means understanding how race, power, privilege and oppression can be baked into algorithms and affect communities for the worse.

拆开AI意味着了解如何将种族，权力，特权和压迫纳入算法，并恶化社区。

We need more people of color, more women in AI to prevent our algorithms from benefiting the upper echelons of society. Although the liberal arts have often been cast off as “creatives,” and thus untouchable by the tech world, we need to recognize that ideas like race and incarceration can be heavily explored by equitable machine learning practices. By bridging narratives and experiences of different communities, AI practitioners themselves must be diverse to address the many different issues, be it STEM related or not.

我们需要更多有色人种，人工智能领域的更多女性，以防止我们的算法使社会上层人士受益。 尽管通俗艺术常常被视为“创意”，因此科技界无法接受，但我们需要认识到，公平的机器学习实践可以极大地探索诸如种族和监禁之类的观念。 通过桥接不同社区的叙述和经验，人工智能从业者本身必须多样化，以解决许多不同的问题，无论是否与STEM相关。

您的遗产如何塑造您的观点？ (How has your heritage shaped your perspective?)

My heritage has played the greatest role in shaping who I am today, and what I aspire for rAIsing to become. My heritage is a narrative extremely individual to me, yet paradoxically not. Being the daughter of Indian immigrants is a narrative that is very personal to me. The stories they tell and their lived experiences are elements of my personality that I hold dear. Oftentimes, I reflect on my identity as Indian-American as attached to my parents’ immigration to America. They instilled a pride for my culture, my ethnic roots, but also an appreciation for the opportunities afforded to me in America. The duality of life, both Indian and American simultaneously, is difficult to balance and understand. No matter where I go, I recognize that I may not instantly be thought of as American, simply because I don’t fit the bill of the “All American girl.” At face value, nothing is as simple as it seems, people included. My “Indian-ness” will be tempered by my community, my surroundings. Rather, my perspective will always analyze the world, not by what it looks on the outside, but for what it is on the inside. To examine the grey area and reject the binary will continue to influence my perspective. My heritage has taught me to be creative and flexible with my identity, to tread lightly but speak strongly.

我的传承在塑造我今天的身份以及我渴望成为的目标方面发挥了最大的作用。 我的传承对我来说是一种极端的叙事，但自相矛盾的不是。 作为印度移民的女儿，这对我来说很个人化。 他们讲的故事和他们的生活经历是我所珍视的我性格的要素。 通常，我会回想起我父母作为美国移民的印度裔美国人的身份。 他们为我的文化，我的民族血统注入了骄傲，也为在美国给我提供的机会表示赞赏。 印度和美国人同时生活的双重性很难平衡和理解。 无论我走到哪里，我都认识到我可能不会立即被认为是美国人，因为我不适合“全美女孩”的要求。 从表面上看，包括人们在内，没有任何事情看起来简单。 我的“印第安人风格”将受到我所在社区和周围环境的影响。 相反，我的观点将始终分析世界，而不是根据外部的外观，而是针对内部的外观。 检查灰色区域并拒绝二进制文件将继续影响我的观点。 我的传承教我以自己的身份富有创造力和灵活度，可以轻踩但说话要坚决。

When creating rAIsing, my heritage empowered me to pursue AI even further. Even though entering a space drastically different from my heritage daunted me, I want to use my cultural and ethnic identity to represent the diverse future of AI. People are impressed if you are a woman and doing something notable, forging your own path, as if that is rare. Instead, I hope that rAIsing serves as a reminder to those who discount the ingenuity of women of color.

创建rAIsing时，我的传统使我有能力进一步追求AI。 尽管进入一个与我的遗产截然不同的空间令我望而却步，但我还是想用自己的文化和种族身份来代表AI的多样化未来。 如果您是女人，做某件事，给人留下深刻的印象，仿佛走了自己的路，那真是难得。 取而代之的是，我希望提倡提醒那些不重视有色女性创造力的人。

人工智能和计算领域主要是白人男性。 您对渴望在这个不断发展的领域中工作的女性有何建议？ (The field of artificial intelligence and computing is predominantly Caucasian male. What is your advice to women who aspire to work in this dynamic, growing field?)

Don’t be afraid to go confidently in the direction of your dreams. In a field dominated by people who don’t look like you, step with surety and confidence, because no one other than yourself can give you that. Even though you may not feel like you belong here, like this opportunity is a fluke, remind yourself that it isn’t luck that got you here, but a passion for something bigger than yourself. And whenever it gets tough, remember that there is a bright, vibrant community of us out there, always ready to cheer for your successes like they are our own.

不要害怕自信地朝着梦想的方向前进。 在一个看起来不像您的人所主导的领域中，请放心地走出自信和自信，因为除了您之外，没有其他人可以给您做到这一点。 即使您可能不会觉得自己属于这里，但这次机会是偶然的，请提醒自己，让您来到这里并不是幸运的事，而是对比自己更大的东西的热情。 每当遇到困难时，请记住，我们外面有一个明亮，充满活力的社区，时刻准备着为您的成功而欢呼，就像他们是我们自己一样。

Follow rAIsing on Anchor here.

在 此处 关注锚点上的rAIsing 。