Mr. Bledar Kazia, Director General, National Cyber Security Authority (AKSK),
Ms. Albana Koçiu, Deputy Prime Minister of Albania,
Ms. Enkelejda Muçaj, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy,
Ms. Ingrid Macdonald, Resident Coordinator, United Nations in Albania,
Ms. Romina Kostani, Deputy Director General, National Agency for
Information Society (AKSHI),
Girls here present,
Distinguished delegates, honoured guests, educators, and most importantly, the young leaders in this room and watching online.
Good morning.
We stand at a historic crossroads. On one path lies the promise of Artificial Intelligence: cures for diseases, solutions for climate change, and personalised education for every child. On the other path lies a risk we cannot afford to take: a digital future built by half the world, excluding the other half.
Today, I want to talk about the bridge between those two paths. That bridge is built by girls. Specifically, girls shaping the digital future through AI for Development.
Let us look at the facts. Globally, women and girls are 18% less likely than men to own a smartphone. In low-income countries, that gap is much wider. But access is only the first step.
Even when girls are online, they are often consumers of technology, not creators. Only 22% of AI professionals globally are female. A recent study of major AI systems showed that 80% of them were built by all-male teams.
What happens when we let a small, non-diverse group code the intelligence that runs our hospitals, our banks, and our schools? We get bias coded into silicon. We get voice assistants that cannot understand female pitches. We get hiring algorithms that penalize women’s resumes. We get medical AI that misdiagnoses heart disease in women because the data was trained on men.
If we do not change course, AI will automate the future against half the population.
But I did not come here to paint a bleak picture. I came here to tell you about a revolution that is already starting—led by girls.
I think of Mariam, a 16-year-old in Nigeria. She saw that women in her rural community were dying from preventable pregnancy complications because they couldn't reach a clinic. So, she coded a simple AI chatbot that runs on basic feature phones. It answers health questions in three local languages. Mariam is not just a coder; she is a life-saver.
I think of Linh in Vietnam, who used computer vision to identify litter in ocean reefs. And Priya in India, who built an AI tutor for deaf students using sign language recognition.
These girls do not need our permission to be brilliant. They need our investment. Because when a girl shapes AI, she doesn't just write code. She writes empathy, fairness, and community into the machine.
So, how do we move from awareness to action? I propose three urgent commitments.
First: Access to "Digital Hard Hats."
We don't just need to give girls laptops. We need to give them the tools to build. That means demystifying AI. We need coding camps where 12-year-old girls are training models, not just using apps. We need curriculum that teaches ethics alongside Python. Let’s stop telling girls to be "users." Let’s teach them to be architects.
Second: Protect them from AI’s Shadow.
We cannot talk about shaping the future without acknowledging the danger. Deepfakes, cyber-harassment, and algorithmic amplification of harmful stereotypes are driving girls off digital platforms. We need governments and tech companies to enforce safety-by-design. A girl cannot shape the future if she is bullied out of the present. We must ensure reporting systems are fast, and perpetrators are held accountable.
Third: Fund the "She" in Data.
Currently, 85% of AI researchers are men. That is a pipeline problem, but it is also a funding problem. Donors and development banks: target your grants. Invest in women-led AI start-ups in the Global South. Fund open-source datasets that reflect the diversity of the world. If the data doesn't include the girl, the AI will never understand her.
And finally, to every girl listening right now.
You may be told that mathematics is for boys. You may be told that tech is too hard. You may look at a room full of engineers and not see anyone who looks like you.
Do not wait for an invitation. The first computer programmer in history was a woman named Ada Lovelace. The term "bug" was coined by Grace Hopper. Today, Fei-Fei Li built the database that taught machines to see.
You belong in this field. Your lived experience—as a sister, a daughter, a citizen of your community—is not a distraction from AI. It is the essential ingredient that AI is missing.
The fourth industrial revolution is here. We can either be passengers on a train driven by a few, or we can be the engineers laying the tracks.
Let us choose to let girls drive.
Let us give them the tools, protect their space, and then—get out of their way.
Because when girls shape the digital future, they don't just change technology. They change the world.
Thank you.
