Tackling Human Trafficking through AI with Emily Kennedy
Emily Kennedy is a social entrepreneur, Forbes 30 Under 30, Toyota Mother of Invention, one of Entrepreneur's Most Powerful Women, a keynote speaker, and podcaster, but the main reason I brought her on the podcast is because she’s working with some of the brightest minds to use AI to fight human trafficking.
It may surprise you to know that Emily does not have a background in AI or technology. In college, Emily focused her senior thesis on how to use big data to fight sex trafficking, which turned into a job, which then turned into her company and software, Traffic Jam, which has helped identify 6,800 victims in the last 2 years.
I’ve long had an interest in understanding how we could tackle human trafficking so it was fantastic to be connected with Emily and learn about what she’s doing.
“...whenever you stand out for some reason, in a crowd, that’s your opportunity to say: the bar is low, but this is where it should be...let’s raise the bar... because I want to raise the bar for other women coming behind me... people need to expect more. ”
What we covered in this episode:
How a trip to Eastern Europe sparked a commitment to tackling human trafficking, and how she created her business from her university project, which is now used as tool used by law enforcement agencies in the USA, Canada and UK
How you don’t need a tech background to work in and with technology like AI (artificial intelligence)
Emily shares the key lessons she’s learnt starting as an entrepreneur without any previous business experience
Why Emily chooses not to measure her impact by the number of convictions, but measures victim identification not victim recovery, and she explains all
How to focus in on the impact you actually create even when you’re trying to tackle a huge complex and global issue - Emily has some amazing advice to share on this!
The fear of being a minority, proving people wrong, raising the bar of what people expect and building networks….taking opportunities to changing the status quo!
How AI works to tackle human trafficking and deepening your knowledge of what’s actually going on here where we live
Why Emily welcomes criticisms (particularly from men leading in her field)
Emily’s links:
Emily’s website: https://www.emilykennedy.org/
Follow Emily on Instagram: @heyemilykennedy
If you enjoyed this episode you might also enjoy these past episodes:
Our very first podcast with Dr Elin Haf Davies Founder of Aparito (technology in health)
Interview with Bailie Aaron Founder of Spark Inside (coaching for young offenders)
Interview with Ame Seji co-Founder of Niche Hair Lab (innovation in hair)
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