GOD. MOTHER. Two of the most loaded words in the English language.
GOD: masculine, transcendent, singular authority, command from above. MOTHER: feminine, embodied, relational, reciprocal care.
Put the two together and a new meaning is created. In folklore, godmothers arrive at moments of transformation; guiding, protecting, offering what's needed for a new chapter to begin. In modern culture, the word has come to describe women whose influence births entire movements; the godmother of soul, the godmother of punk. In the context of AI, they’re creating intelligence with maternal values and care for the vulnerable.
Yet as is often the case throughout history, their names are not widely known.
We want to make sure the ideas of women in the tech space are translated to readers outside the sector. We wonder, will Timnit Gebru become as recognisable as Sam Altman? Does Kate Crawford’s name have resonance with tech outsiders? Do you know why Mereditih Whittaker left Google? And why does it matter?
It matters because tech is no longer a niche issue. It is an everyone issue, and the power imbalance inherent in its structure is re-embedding values that should have died out a century ago. Women's voices need to be at the forefront of these civilisational changes. They give birth — literally — to the new. But women are, we believe, by design, being kept out of the rooms where power is centred. As Valerie Veatch, director of ‘Ghost in the Machine,’ put it when we spoke for our podcast: ”There’s a reason we don't find Godmothers in AI…The absence is a feature, not a bug.”
Godmothers exists to document this critical moment. The women are there — changing policy, designing with conscience, thinking with foresight. They just aren’t making headlines. The next five years will set AI's direction. The window is narrow and it is now.