Nadia Lee has learnt—by working in tech entrepreneurship all throughout her professional life—a successful startup business relies on three critical things: the right timing, the right team and, of course, investor appetite.
She has seen startups come and go, fail and succeed, but Lee’s biggest learnings have come from her work as an entrepreneur herself.
Now, as an AI ethicist and founder of tech startup, ThatsMyFace, she is leading the way in the ethical use of AI, all the while managing the challenges of running her own business.
“I think anyone who’s been in entrepreneurship knows that it just doesn’t happen overnight,” Lee tells Women’s Agenda.
“No big problem in the history of humanity has been solved with one click. AI is the same.”
From AI research to startup world
Lee studied creative intelligence and innovation at the University Technology of Sydney from 2015 to 2019. In one class, her lecturer was discussing the need to establish an ethics framework for the digital world.
It was just a passing comment, but it’s stuck with Lee ever since.
“Ten hours a day, we exist in a digital world,” Lee says. “And then the other ten hours a day, we’re sleeping, eating or whatever, in the physical world.
“We’ve been so focused on rights to preserve and ethics in the real world, but we haven’t actually applied the same in the digital world.”
After university, Lee worked as a data ethics researcher at >X, now known as Tethix, to develop further understanding about AI ethics.
She was then able to take this knowledge into three startups she worked for over the next few years, where she honed her entrepreneurial spirit.
One startup she worked for thrived and became a sustainable business, one went under, another was bought by a larger company. All of these different outcomes inspired Lee to give it a go herself.
“The best way to learn anything is just throw yourself in,” Lee says.
“If you have enough belief in your strength and your intelligence and your capacity, I think that’s the best way to learn.”
Lee launched dadalearn in December 2021, an online tutoring platform that connected parents with tutors. She launched it at the right time, when online learning was normalised due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But as for the other keys to success, Lee didn’t have a team behind her – it was just her. And after two years of dadalearn, she felt investor appetite fading.
Nevertheless, Lee’s entrepreneurial spirit did not dim. It was time, she realised, to try something else.
How ThatsMyFace was born
Lee was scrolling on LinkedIn one night when she came across a news story. It was about a businessman whose digital identity was stolen: deepfakes of his voice and face were used to commit fraud.
This was Lee’s lightning bolt moment.
“It angered me,” Lee says. “I remember thinking – how did we get ourselves here? We never signed up for this.
“We said AI would improve identifying tumours in a scan – but I never said you could use my face to commit fraud on behalf of me.”
Thinking back to her lecturer’s words all those years ago at university, the idea for ThatsMyFace came to her. She wanted to make a difference in the ethical use of AI and technology in the digital world.
“I realised,” Lee says, “that this is probably the most important thing I could be doing with my time.”
ThatsMyFace was launched in June 2023. It is a software and consultancy company specialising in AI ethics. Whilst her organisation has developed ethical AI software that could transform how AI is used in the digital world, large corporations are not ready – or perhaps not willing – to adopt it, as it could compromise profit generation.
As a midway strategy, ThatsMyFace provides consultancy services to these organisations on how they can use AI in a more ethical way.
Lee realised what she was getting herself into: every day, she grapples with the uncertainty of being a startup founder, and it never gets easier.
She is also very aware of the perception of ethical AI technology, in the eyes of many big corporations, that AI ethics is a dampener of technological development. There’s very limited funding and a huge lack of attention on AI ethics, as a result.
But Lee is determined with her mission.
“I think anyone who’s been in entrepreneurship knows that it just doesn’t happen overnight,” Lee says.
In terms of overcoming the ethical issues that surround AI, Lee is sure it will require a collective effort from individuals, businesses and policy makers alike. “Everybody has to do their part, and if everybody’s not in, it’s not going to get solved.”
Thanks to our partner CommBank. CommBank supports women in business and the community across all industries and sectors through its Women in Focus team. For more information head to WomeninFocus.com.au.