Nearly 200 women gathered for the first-ever Women + AI Summit at Vanderbilt Law School on February 1, and the exchange of insights, experiences, support, and ideas was both invigorating and, somehow, super chill.
How does one setting deliver both excitement and restfulness? Motivation and validation? Congratulations and aspiration? I couldn’t begin to work out the math, but I sure felt the impact.
The day was planned and hosted by Cat Moon, founder and co-director of the Vanderbilt AI Law Lab, alongside her cohosts: Charreau Bell (senior data scientist), Carolyn Elefant (VAILL advisor), Emily Pavuluri (VAILL team member), and Hannah Kupfer (Class of 2027), all affiliated with Vanderbilt Law School.
Some truly brilliant (and stellar!) women from across the legal and technology spheres shared their best insights during the event, and I’m grateful to have heard them. In case you missed it, here are the 11 most enlightening lessons I learned at the inaugural Women + AI Summit.
#1: The secret to riding the AI wave into a successful, innovative future is to “replace fear with curiosity.” – Cat Moon
Cat Moon opened the day with this encouragement for all attendees. She thanked us for being there. She reminded us of our worth. She assured us of our capability. And she emphasized the necessity of collaboration, across disciplines, when it comes to innovation and advancement with AI.
Cat’s message, the purpose that originally inspired her to create this event, was clear: “Our future is everyone. It will be a better one if each of us is helping to shape and lead it.”
And that’s what the rest of the Summit was all about.
#2: “I bet they don’t even see how great they are.” – Charreau Bell
Charreau shared some wonderful sentiments to help open the day, but this one—praising all of us who are doing important work, even if it’s behind the scenes—was my favorite. Many of the event speakers echoed it, confessing to feelings of imposter syndrome and uncertainty, especially early in their careers or as they first dove into AI.
This humility with which so many brilliant and impactful women approached a group of their peers was inspirational and kind. But it was also a reminder that we so rarely give ourselves the credit we deserve. How strange, to see people we so readily look up to admitting that sometimes they feel small, too.
Dear reader, I mean this sincerely: You are smart, and you have big contributions to make. Stay humble and kind, because these qualities make our community so wonderful. But find the balance: don’t be afraid to take pride in your work and speak up. We want to hear from you!
#3: “We need to build technology that values people. Technology that separates people is not solving any problems.” – Aparna Komarla
Founder of Redo.io, which creates open databases and data analytics tools to help attorneys, public servants, and academics study prison populations, Aparna emphasized the critical importance of using AI for good.
Too many tools have been posited or created to save money and ended up separating people from each other. An AI model that puts greater distance between us, replacing human interaction and intervention, will not advance the greater good in the same way that AI made to connect people can.
It comes down to a familiar question: should AI replace humans? And the obvious answer should be no. Artificial intelligence is most impactful when it is additive, used in collaboration with human intelligence, and helps people more effectively work together toward a common goal.
#4: We should be “building the best possible collaborative partnerships between humans and AI.” – Chandi Wolfe
Speaking of that collaboration, Chandi—who leads a team specializing in data science and engineering at Husch Blackwell—spoke as a builder with expertise in extended reality technologies. Chandi recalled for us how, at the advent of generative AI, she quickly saw how “absolutely everything was about to change” in her field.
Despite her impressive academic and professional background in data and engineering, Chandi said, like all of us, she had “no idea what that change was going to look like.” She just knew she wanted to be involved. And she wanted to make sure the human element of the technology remains central to how we move forward.
Ultimately, Chandi explained, “we all know how exhausting it can be to change yourself to fit” in a world that isn’t designed for you. This may feel particularly familiar to women who feel pressured to fit into a world designed largely by and for men. One of the most exciting things about this moment is that it can be a great reset for all of us.
“We are all building this new future,” Chandi reflected. “What future will you invent?”
#5: “Generative AI is reshaping the career landscape. If you’re interested in something, just start doing it.” – Cristin Traylor
There’s never an industry event where I’m not proud to call Cristin a coworker, and the Women + AI Summit was no exception. She told the story of her unique career progression as a lawyer and generative AI expert, and she did it with honesty and the good-natured affability that is one of her trademarks.
She also used it as an opportunity to encourage everyone in the room to take ownership of every wonderful thing they bring to the table.
Cristin’s story is wonderful because she saw an opportunity, she jumped on it, and she advocated for herself along the way. We could all take a lesson from her initiative and her courage in following a fascinating thread of interest into a brand-new career path.
#6: “What if you or I, or something we’ve built, can be that intervention?” (on preventing automation and technology from contributing to radicalization) – Sarah Burriss
As a South Carolina librarian, Sarah was a colleague of Cynthia Hurd—a community leader who was killed in the 2015 Charleston church shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The tragedy was a horrific, racially motivated hate crime committed by a man named Dylann Roof.
Sarah told us that learning how the shooter was radicalized online—in part by Google searches that led him to one racist site after another—taught her that “the data we generate and analyze, how we collect, use, package, and present it, all can have real-world impact on human beings.”
Now a postdoctoral researcher in AI, ethics, and education at Vanderbilt, Sarah implored Summit attendees to keep each other, and vulnerable people in all kinds of situations, top-of-mind as we design, develop, and use AI. Each of us can, in the technology we build or the connections we make, be the intervening force of love and humanity that can break cycles of hate and help make our communities safer.
#7: We each have a lot to contribute, and “there are no true experts.” – Sarah Glassmeyer
Quoting Thirteen Days, a film about the Kennedy administration’s efforts to deescalate the Cuban Missile Crisis, Sarah expressed how we are all in a moment where we’re learning “‘there are no wise old men’ to come in and save the day. ‘There’s just us.’”
That’s a scary thought, in some ways. Generative AI and the many other AI innovations erupting into the field every day are so new that many of our experts are still ravenously learning about them, racing to stay ahead of the curve. But the exciting part? Each of us has an opportunity to be the experts we want to see in this field.
This movement is just beginning, and “it’s not too late to get on the AI train.” Sarah also quoted Cher, recounting how she responded to her mother’s advice to settle down and marry a rich man someday: “Mom, I am a rich man.”
All of us should feel entirely capable of owning the unique way we choose to move forward in the AI revolution.
#8: “This moment is about the opportunity to use AI to solve big, untouchable problems we couldn’t before. But just because we can use it for that, doesn’t mean we will. We in this room need to push for it.” – Kara Peterson
During the pandemic, Kara and her husband faced an unexpected legal problem involving workplace discrimination that disrupted their lives in huge ways. Recognizing how difficult it was to navigate even from a place of privilege, with lawyers among their friends and neighbors, they were deeply troubled by how much more unsettling the experience must be for those with access to fewer resources.
Motivated by this experience, they founded descrybe.ai—a free legal search engine, available in English and Spanish, that makes legal research accessible and approachable for everyone.
We’ve heard from our community that AI has the promise to be a great equalizer when it comes to access to justice. But if these tools are not developed and priced responsibly, AI may also be used to worsen existing gaps between justice systems and the citizens they serve.
Kara told us that the solution is to stay human. To advocate for people, and to do so selflessly. It’s easy to see how her company’s mission exemplifies that.
#9: We all “feel different—sometimes painfully, sometimes proudly” from time to time. – Susan Tanner
Growing up with learning differences, Susan learned how to create for herself a great many accommodations that helped her succeed in a world made for “a middle that’s not quite there” for someone who thinks the way she does. For years, this just felt like her best effort at “normalcy”—but when, as a young adult, she found a community of peers with their own neurodiversities and unique interests, she realized that the world doesn’t have to be that way.
Now, as a professor at the University of Louisville School of Law, Susan told WAI Summit attendees that “the solution shouldn’t be to fit people into the system. It’s to change the system.” AI gives us a great opportunity to adapt systems and technologies for people with different needs and viewpoints.
Throughout the event, we heard a similar thread from so many women in legal and technology: feelings of unbelonging and uncertainty have plagued many of us. But it’s okay to be different. In fact, it’s an amazing opportunity to bring a new and important perspective to big conversations about the future of AI and the law. And none of us should be afraid to do that.
#10: “I ignored the eyerolls, put my head down, and kept doing it, because I knew it was important.” – Stephanie Wilkins
How many of us heard the rumbles and groans of “AI again?!” back when this technology first erupted on the legal tech sphere? For a few years running, we placed bets on how frequently the term—which, at first, felt so much like an empty buzzword—would appear on publications, conference agendas, and product websites.
Stephanie Wilkins was there; she heard the grumbles first-hand. But did she stop covering artificial intelligence and its impact on the practice of law? Heck no. She credits her wealth of coverage on it as part of what landed her a job as editor-in-chief at Legaltech News. And when generative AI erupted onto the scene just a couple of months later, she was well ahead of it with content and a foundational technical understanding of how it could impact the legal world.
It just goes to show that, when you find something that gives you that spark, you owe it to yourself to stick with it. All that work will pay off in the end.
#11: “If the floor is tilted, it’s easy to spot the problem at that basic level. If we don’t, the skews will echo up to more complex questions, too.” – Khalea Robinson
During a session on selecting ethical AI, Jenn Bankston and Khalea Robinson from DiCello Levitt LLP walked attendees through the use of decision trees to aid in our decision-making.
“AI vetting is an involved process,” Jenn said. “Ethical assessment should be a part of it.”
Khalea described the domino effect of using poorly fit AI. Whether it’s cheaply built, insufficiently tested, or simply not fit for purpose according to the use case you have in mind, using the wrong AI can introduce errors, liabilities, and downstream impacts that can’t be undone.
Each of us can play a role in keeping the playing field level, choosing tools that are built with purpose and thoughtfulness, and ensuring data is protected and ethically sourced. It’s the only viable way forward.
What Can You Teach Us?
The most meaningful lesson I took away from this year’s Women + AI Summit was simply to have the courage to lend my voice. To share my perspectives. To teach where I can (which is more often than I think!), listen when I can (which is always), and contribute how I can.
I’d like to encourage you to do the same! Join the conversation using #WAI on LinkedIn, whether you attended the Summit or not. I can’t wait to connect and hear your AI story, best lessons learned, and what excites you about the future of our industry.
Sam Bock is a member of the marketing team at Relativity, and serves as editor of The Relativity Blog.
