Marissa Mayer: Championing Software, Sidestepping Labels – Feminist and Neurodivergent Included!
“Marissa Mayer: I Am Not a Feminist. I Am Not Neurodivergent. I Am a Software Girl”
“Everybody knows Marisa Mayer, former Yahoo CEO, turned the company around before it was finally devoured by Verizon. Humanity’s been in a few metaphorical car wrecks itself—global warming, nuclear war, the creation of the internet. So why not enlist Mayer to help clean up those too?” Her recent interview with Wired uncovers the hows and whys of such a possibility.
Mayer, arguably one of the most influential tech moguls of our time, has quickly jumped from managing Yahoo’s existential crisis to juggling climate change threats and global pandemic implications. Talk about a career shift. No pressure or anything, Marisa. Yahoo was just Yahoo, now it’s just the Earth that hangs in the balance.
In the interview, Mayer mentions her alliance with Sunshine, a small company that aims to “organize the world’s information,” not unlike Google’s old mission statement. Let’s not forget that she is a veteran of Google herself. It seems like Mayer is following the old adage, “stick to what you know,” albeit with a slightly higher stake.
The Sunshine app, with its AI-induced weather forecasts, is Mayer’s new ‘geek-chic’ weapon in the fight against climate change. The tech mogul, clearly influenced by her Google origins, states, “AI can be a major part of solving global warming…AI can actually help determine where the worst of climate change will hit.” The notion of using algorithms and machine learning to fight climate change is not new or revolutionary, but coming from Mayer, it certainly amplifies the narrative.
To give a human touch to the robot-induced battle against climate change, Mayer recalls how her grandfather’s days started with daily weather updates. Nostalgic, yes, but she swiftly adds how the sheer scale of climate change has made all the childhood weather forecasts all the more relevant. Because, obviously, grandpa’s backyard weather observations are what we should all turn to when dealing with the global warming crisis.
Clearly, Mayer is in no shortage of ambition. Post-Yahoo, instead of opting for a beach-side retirement, she decided to carry the Earth’s burden on her shoulders. It’s a peculiarly noble, if not terrifying decision. Maybe it’s the hindsight ennui of handling Yahoo’s downfall or the calculated whimsy of a Silicon Valley veteran. One can only hope that Mayer is better equipped than most to handle these rather serious weather anomalies.
In all this, Mayer’s interview serves to remind us of the power of technology as a tool that not just organizes us humans, but possibly saves us too. As for whether Mayer can actually help reverse global warming with her new AI ventures…well, as they say, time and tide wait for none. Good luck with that, Marisa.
Don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled, your weather app updated, and your climate-change induced anxieties in check. Because if Mayer says AI has got it covered, then, of course, we won’t see any more hurricanes, droughts, or deadly heatwaves. Right?