Introducing Your Host, Joanna (Jo) Shilton

00:00 - David Brown (Host)

Hello, welcome to the Women with AI's very first podcast, and in today's conversation, I want to introduce Joanna Shilton, who's going to be the host of the new show, and we're going to just have a quick chat to let everybody know what the show is about and what to expect, and I will let Jo introduce herself to everybody. So hello, Jo!

00:21 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

Hello David, Thank you.

00:24 - David Brown (Host)

So are you getting excited?

00:25 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

I'm getting very excited. As soon as you approached me with the idea of the podcast, I'd listen to yours, obviously, Creatives WithAI and as soon as you said you had the Women WithAI and said you were looking for someone, I immediately started telling you about someone I work with because she's working with autonomous vehicles and how she'd be great. And then you said, no, I want someone to host it. And I don't know what happened. I just said, yes, I'll be your host. Oh, you didn't actually ask me. I just said I'll be your host.

00:56 - David Brown (Host)

No, you jumped in there, and for me, that was the most important thing is I've mentioned this to loads of people in the past, and I was like kind of just disinterested, or oh yeah, okay, and you were on it straight away, and so that's why I was like, okay, good, she'll be a great host because you were excited about the idea and, if I remember correctly, you said something about at one point you wanted to be in radio or something, didn't you?

01:20 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

Yes, I used to live in Bath. I once sent a tape off and I think they were looking for, yeah, for hosts for a radio show for DJs, and I sent one. I had a friend that worked there and he encouraged me to send in. I never heard back, but maybe it got lost in the post. But I'm quite happy because I then said to you immediately afterwards I don't know much about AI, I'm not an expert, and you quite handily pointed out that I don't need to be the expert, not yet.

01:46 - David Brown (Host)

Exactly.

01:47 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

Because everyone that we ask to come on the show will be the experts.

01:51 - David Brown (Host)

Well, and they don't have to be on the show that I've done, Creatives WithAI. I've had all sorts of people on, and what's been really interesting is to sometimes get the expert's opinion and sometimes to get, if you want to call it, like lay people right, so people who aren't involved and heads down in the tech all the time to kind of understand what their perspective is on it as well. So I think it's good to have a mix of both and we've got what I don't know, I think between the two of us. We've got probably 20 or 30 sort of fantastic women that we can talk to lined up, you know, for conversations, you know, moving forward. So I think that'll be amazing and I'm and as I said to you, I'm not the right person to host this conversation. Do you know what I mean?

02:44 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

As a bloke. I'm probably not the yeah, well, I, because I can't.

02:49 - David Brown (Host)

I can't really empathise with some of the topics and that sort of thing, and I don't really understand. So I think that the show needs to be hosted by a woman and I think you'll be brilliant.

02:59 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

It's going to be an honour. I'm very excited and I think you're right you don't have to be a seasoned professional within the industry of AI, but I think AI is everywhere, so everyone's probably curious about it, everyone's enthusiastic about it one way or another. So, I think this is going to be an interesting journey for me and the audience. They can learn with me, so we can have people listening that know nothing, people that know everything, and I want to hear what the experiences and challenges are for women working in AI and how we can encourage more women to pursue careers in AI, if that's what they want to do and where our place is to support advancements.

03:38 - David Brown (Host)

Brilliant, and so tell me just a little bit more, or tell everybody a little bit more about your background and what you've been doing for the past few years.

03:47 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

The past few years. Well, I've been living in Cambridge. Before that, I lived in Bath and I worked for publishing companies in Bath so everything from the water cooler industry to cinema magazines so a wide breadth of different publications there and then moved to Cambridge. I've previously worked for a marketing agency at one of the private schools in the city and I've been working for the county council, but I actually currently look after communications and engagement for a program called Connecting Cambridge and we're driving digital infrastructure for Cambridge and Peterborough. So we're looking at things like smart technology, sensors, autonomous vehicles, that kind of thing, and that's really what's piqued my interest in this, because AI is everywhere and I want to learn more about it and that's the exciting part of the job that I do. So I think this is a great fit for me to learn more and to use the knowledge that I've gained already to be able to ask people as we all navigate the complexities of AI.

04:49 - David Brown (Host)

And do you have a sense? How often do we want to do the show? Do we want to try?

04:54 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

and Weekly is quite. Weekly sounds a bit scary straight away. I'm not AI; I need to ease myself in.

05:07 - David Brown (Host)

So anyone listening knows we haven't really talked about this in too much detail yet, but did you have a sense for, like, every other week, every three weeks?

05:16 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

I mean, once a month doesn't sound like enough, does it? I think we need to get a few in the bag, and then we can keep going. Maybe no one will ever hear this if they all turn out terribly, but I'm sure they won't.

05:30 - David Brown (Host)

Nah, it'll be fine. We've got nearly 100 followers on LinkedIn already. We haven't even done a show yet.

05:37 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

We haven't even been announced as the host.

05:40 - David Brown (Host)

That's right. So well, this will be the one.

05:43 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

Surprise, better tell your boss. It's okay, it's Ceren knows.

05:50 - David Brown (Host)

That's good, cool, and do you so? Do you use AI, or have you used it much at work? Yeah, or in your personal life?

06:00 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

Chat GPT. I certainly use that. That's helped me to write things for work, but also in my personal life. I won't go into any details yet about what I used it for, but yeah, so everything's AI, isn't it? I think that we're using from Siri that you talked to, Alexa, that you talked to. I'd better not say those names out loud because everyone's going off Perfect.

06:28 - David Brown (Host)

Hey Google.

06:29 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

Exactly that one too.

06:31 - David Brown (Host)

Other AIs are available. Yeah.

06:36 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

So, yeah, I think we're all using it every day, even if we don't realise we are.

06:41 - David Brown (Host)

What do you, what's your general perspective on it? Are you sort of are you glass half full or glass half empty?

06:47 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

he machines and the robots by: 2045

07:27

I think I know it's been around for many, many years, many, many years, since, you know, middle of the last century, but it's exponentially growing at a rate that well, you could predict. But I think there's so much that we can learn. I think even, you know, not even 10 years or five years. I think in two or three years; we'll look back and look at everything that's coming out now and just laugh at how ridiculously basic it might seem. So I think, yeah, there's a lot ahead of us and I think it is quite scary, but there's lots of policies. You know, people are talking about ethics, people are talking about the morality behind it, and I think we've got to trust the people that are using it. But that's easier said than done.

08:04

But, yeah, there needs to be, there needs to be policies and there needs to be a way to look after it. And I think we have to embrace the feminine side and maybe become mothers to AI rather than fathers. That could be a bit of a controversial statement, but I think you know we've got to nurture it. We've got to nurture AI and make sure it's doing the right things, and so if it does take over, we can feel safe.

08:35 - David Brown (Host)

That's why I always say be nice to it.

08:36 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

Exactly! I like that. Someone said the other day that if you're using Chat GPT, you should say that you'll pay it 20 pounds or give it a reward if they do it. But I'm always polite.

08:47 - David Brown (Host)

I always say thank you.

08:48 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

So thank you. Now could you try doing it a little bit different.

08:53 - David Brown (Host)

The scary part is what they've discovered is that it actually works better. If you're slightly rude to, it Really. Apparently, you get better results.

09:02 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

You're being keen.

09:05 - David Brown (Host)

Something like that, and for me that's really worrying because I don't want us to train it to be mean.

09:12 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

No well, who did that? Who wrote that in the code? Well, where does it learn it from?

09:16 - David Brown (Host)

That's the question it's learning. Well, I don't know, but it is. But I think it goes back to that whole reward mechanism, which is how it works right, and it just all it's trying to do is make you happy and to give you an answer that you say, yes, that's what I want. And if you keep telling it no, then it will keep trying, and I think it will. Yeah, it must have something to do with that, you know, it's just part of the inbuilt mechanism of how it works. But it doesn't, you know, for me, I'm like personally, I'm polite to it because I want to be a polite person and it doesn't matter who or what I interact with, I just want to be polite because I think it's nice and I like to be nice.

09:58 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

Treat people as you would be treated. I always thank Alexa when she's told me something.

10:03 - David Brown (Host)

There you go, there you go, exactly. So, yeah, you know, and it just teaches lessons. But I think that could be one of those weird unintended consequences as we see society gradually just fall off this politeness edge. I mean it's already bad right, like compared to what it used to be, and certainly where I grew up in the US we still were, at least as far as I know. You know, we still say ma'am and sir to people if they're adults that we don't know or people that we don't know, and I say that there's adults that will say yes, ma'am and yes, sir, and all that to people that they don't know, because it's just a sign of respect, whereas, you know, I think a lot of the younger generations don't do that as much, but maybe they do. I just I haven't been home in like well, 25 years. I guess you know very much to know.

10:53 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

Different places around this country I was. So I'm in Cambridge, but I went to the Lake District and the people that are so polite, so helpful, even in the supermarket. You're in the supermarket, you've loaded up all your stuff. Before they even start scanning, they say hello, how are you today? And it almost takes you back. I'm not used to someone saying that Normally cashier just scans it, no one's saying anything. They might thank you for paying or you thank them for giving you the receipt, but no, it was, and it was a really refreshing change.

11:19 - David Brown (Host)

So who are you going to be your first couple of guests on the show?

11:22 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

lso International Women's Day: 2024

11:47 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

I am a non-techie so I think it's a perfect introduction for everybody, excellent. And yeah, we've also got our second guest lined up already, and that is the fabulous Izabella Russell, who is best known for her role as CEO of Music Radio Creative.

12:04 - David Brown (Host)

And for anyone who's listened to the Creatives WithAI podcast if you've listened to any of them, I had her husband, Mike Russell, on Mike's an influencer. He's got like 300 - over 300,000 subscribers on YouTube and like 30 million views or something crazy, and they are the absolute most lovely couple in the world. So I know you'll have an amazing conversation with that with Isabella.

12:28 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

Very excited. I hope they're prepared for me my first foray into being a podcast host. It'll be amazing.

12:37 - David Brown (Host)

It'll be amazing. I know you'll have a good conversation and they'll ease you in nicely into the whole process and then, yeah, so every couple of weeks then we'll look to put out a new episode in the beginning and we'll see how that goes and then, if we can get in a good routine, maybe we'll speed up later, but every every few weeks two to three weeks we'll we'll do an episode and see how it goes.

13:00 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

I'm sure I've got people in my mind, my Daphne and I know you have as well, so you're very awesome. Thank you, David.

13:08 - David Brown (Host)

Bring it. Well, I think that's enough for today. I just wanted to sort of have a quick chat with you and introduce you to everyone. Hello, everyone, Hello everyone. And yeah, we'll. We'll see you on the 8th of March.

13:19 - Jo Shilton (Guest)

Thanks for listening!