Recoding stories: the power of inclusive books at scale
Komal Singh |
TEDxKitchenerED
• February 2020
There are missing characters in children's books that lead to missing leaders in the future. There’s a solution however, as we can use technology and AI to reimagine storytelling, and create inclusive-stories-at-scale, that empower youth to see themselves in the stories they read.
Driven by her 4 year old daughter’s hypothesis, “Oh mamma, all engineers are boys”, in this talk, Komal Singh shares her personal story and vulnerable journey as a technologist, mother, author, immigrant, and an intrapreneur. She talks about the consequences of lack of diverse characters in kids books, and how that correlates to missing leaders in boardrooms and labs. More excitingly, she shares how this inspired her to start a passion project, comprised of tech-creatives, to address the problem in novel ways -- by using technology and AI to make books inclusive, inspiring, and immersive.
Komal Singh is an Engineering Program Manager at Google, and creator of children's STEM bestsellers. Her 20% passion project at work aims to use technology and AI in novel ways to tackle the lack of diversity in kids literature. As an accomplished technologist, D&I advocate, and award-winning community influencer, her work has been featured on Globe & Mail, Forbes, Financial Post, CTV, The Social, The Record and more.