AI for Equity

Can an algorithm tell you what is beautiful? And if it can, whose idea of beauty is it working from? This week's guest is Hugo, founder of London's first AI consultancy. He has trained foundation models, audited machine vision systems for The Times and Vogue Business, and taught over 5,000 teenagers to build and ship real products through his company Sherpas. He now runs AI Night School, h...

Swap a woman's name for a man's on the same profile, and the visibility climbs. Amazon's hiring algorithm learned to filter out the word "women's" without anyone telling it to. None of this is a fault in an otherwise fair system. It is the system, running on exactly what it was trained on. This week Leah Garrett and Jenny Garrett OBE are joined by Cecilia Jastrzembska, a...

We tend to treat toxic workplaces as accidents. Jody, founder of Gentia, argues they are closer to design, and that the psychosocial hazards doing the most damage are the ones organisations are least willing to name. In this episode we talk about what psychosocial hazards actually are, from crushing workloads and bullying to poor leadership and the slow loss of autonomy, and why they so rarely sho...

What does it take to bring AI into a team without losing the people inside it? In this episode of AI for Equity, we're joined by Richard De Villiers, a facilitator and consultant who helps organisations rethink collaboration in remote and hybrid settings. With a background spanning IT and HR, Richard works at the meeting point of people, process, and technology, and he has strong views on gett...

What Happens When Talent Has No Guide? Mentorship, STEM and the Future of AI In this episode of AI for Equity, hosts Jenny Garrett OBE and Leah-Sunshine Garrett sit down with Bamidele Farinre, Chartered Biomedical Scientist, educator, author of The Mentor's Journey: From Learning to Leading, and passionate STEM advocate. Bamidele shares her remarkable journey from growing up in Nigeria with dr...

Most conversations about AI are stuck in a tired binary. It's either the technology that's going to replace us all, or a clever bit of automation that doesn't really matter. Both framings miss the point, and both let the people building these systems off the hook. In this episode of AI for Equity, Leah and Jenny sit down with Maria Axente, one of the UK's leading voices on responsi...

Dev Aditya has built the world's first publicly available AI teacher, an AI model for children with hearing impairments, and Teddy AI, a learning tool for young kids. Through OIAI, his work has reached tens of thousands of learners across four continents. In this episode, we talk about what equity in AI education actually looks like, how children decide to trust a machine, and why curiosity ma...

In this episode of AI for Equity, Jenny Garrett OBE and Leah Garrett sit down with Julia Stamm, founder of C-Shapes AI and a leading voice on responsible AI innovation in Europe. Julia came to AI through social science, not engineering, and that lens shapes everything about how she works: from her years funding innovation across European institutions to her current mission of amplifying the women...

Inkar Kenzhessarina didn't set out to build a mental health startup. With a background in international relations and law, founding a company was never the plan, until burnout and clinical depression during her master's in Sweden made it impossible to ignore the gap between people who need mental health support and people who can actually access it. Daisy, the AI platform she went on to bu...

Ideja Bajra was on track for a PhD in cell biology when ChatGPT landed and rerouted everything. In this episode, Leah Garrett sits down with Ideja, founder of her own AI consultancy, to talk about the nonlinear path that took her from St Andrews labs to running a business demystifying AI for companies. They cover the random accelerator email that gave her two weeks to invent a business, why a scie...

AI partners are here. Apps that remember your birthday, mirror your moods, and never argue. For a generation already battling record loneliness, the appeal is obvious. But who is this product really designed for, and who pays the price? In this episode, Leah and Jenny Garrett OBE unpack the rise of AI companionship: the WHO data linking 871,000 annual deaths to loneliness, the apps cashing in on t...

Dr Keshav Malhotra's great-grandfather started practising medicine in India. Four generations later, Keshav is sitting at the intersection of embryology and artificial intelligence, chairing the embryology wing of the Indian Society of Assisted Reproduction and working with the Alpha Scientists board to push reproductive science forward globally. In this episode, we trace that lineage, not jus...

Turning the Tables: Normalcy Bias and the Case for Context  traces the arc from Youth Parliament at 11, to teaching herself to code on Tumblr, through finance jobs and several countries, to the moment that set Dawn Intelligence in motion. It's an origin episode, but it's also an argument. Normalcy bias is quietly shaping how institutions respond to gender-based violence, and Leah makes the...

What does education look like when there are no schools and no teachers? In this episode, we speak to Chandrima, a physicist who earned their PhD at Cambridge and held positions at Dartmouth and Harvard before making a radical career shift. During the pandemic, they stepped back from academia and into community organising, eventually founding DARS, an AI assisted tutoring platform designed for mar...

Season 3 of AI for Equity is here. Leah Garrett and Jenny Garrett OBE are back and diving straight into the deep end. In this episode, they take on the biggest AI story of 2026 so far: jobs. Tech layoffs have surged, companies are openly citing AI as the reason for mass redundancies, and entry-level workers are bearing the brunt. But is this genuine displacement or are some companies using AI as c...

In this special Christmas episode of  AI for Equity , Jenny Garrett OBE reflects on what it really means to make AI fair, inclusive, and equitable. If the AI industry had a Christmas dinner, who would be missing from the table? We explore the digital divide, the absence of indigenous and minoritized voices, and why representation isn’t just a moral issue, but a practical necessity for building tec...

How do you design technology that truly represents everyone? Maisa Bennati joins  AI for Equity  to discuss the intersection of diversity, design, and innovation. From fashion tech to AI ethics, we explore how bias finds its way into the products we build and how inclusive design can change that story. #AIforEquity #InclusiveTech #DesignForAll #DiversityInAI #AIethics

What happens when you meet Barack Obama? In this week’s episode of  AI for Equity , Jenny and Leah reflect on their surreal encounter with the former President in Dublin and the powerful lessons they took away. From leadership and empathy to technology and truth, this episode explores how we can use AI to strengthen, not replace, our humanity. They discuss what Obama’s words meant for the future o...

In this thought-provoking episode, Shayne Halls explores how AI is reshaping the world of talent acquisition and human resources — and why empathy must remain at the centre of it all. We dive into how  algorithms can assist human judgment  without losing sight of the emotional intelligence and compassion that define great leadership. From career-defining decisions to responsible data use, Shayne m...

In this episode of AI for Equity, Jenny and Leah sit down with Christina Chen, founder of First AI Group, to explore how artificial intelligence is transforming talent acquisition, business automation, and investment opportunities for female founders. Christina shares her insights on the  human  side of AI - reminding us that even in a world of automation, people remain at the heart of innovation....

In this episode of AI for Equity, Leah and Jenny speak with Ekua Cant, a visibility leadership coach, about what it really means to be seen and valued in today’s world of technology and AI. From the power of paid speaking opportunities to the biases coded into algorithms, Ekua shares how diverse leaders can use visibility as a form of empowerment — and why collaboration and courage are key to crea...

In this episode of AI for Equity, Leah and Jenny sit down with Finbar O’Hanlon, a musician turned tech innovator, to explore how curiosity and creativity fuel innovation in an AI-driven world. From the similarities between music and coding to the need to unlearn outdated beliefs, Finbar shares how adaptability and experimentation can redefine what it means to be human in the age of technology. Tog...

In this episode of AI for Equity, Leah-Sunshine Garrett speaks with Suvianna, founder of the AI for Change Foundation, about what it really means to build ethical and responsible AI. From the challenges organisations face in turning policy into practice to the global need for equity in AI design, Suvianna shares powerful insights into how culture, innovation, and ethics intersect. Together, they e...

In this episode of AI for Equity, we sit down with Anna Jones, CEO and co-founder of RefuAid and MeritAI, to explore how technology, especially AI, is reshaping refugee integration and empowerment. From her beginnings in law to leading two transformative organisations, Anna shares how language, re-accreditation, and access are key to restoring dignity and independence for refugees. She also discus...

In this powerful episode of  AI for Equity , Jenny and Leah speak with Christian Ortiz, a de-colonial technologist and creator of Justice AI, to unpack the deep-rooted issues of AI bias and explore what true ethical AI looks like in practice. Christian shares how Justice AI was built through collaboration with marginalised professionals to identify and mitigate bias in organisations. Together, the...