Social Impact Tech: Kara Peterson Of Descrybe.ai On How Their Technology Will Make An Important Positive Impact
Don’t start with AI. Yes, it is hot right now, but so was blockchain yesterday. Start with the problem you want to solve and then explore which tech is most appropriate. Your problem may be a good fit for AI, but it may also not. There are plenty of other ways to innovate, so don’t worry if AI is not the right tool for this issue.
In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kara Peterson.
Kara Peterson is the Co-Founder of descrybe.ai, an award-winning justice tech platform harnessing AI to make legal information affordable and accessible for all, and dedicated to addressing the access-to-justice crisis in the United States. To date, descrybe.ai has made over 3.6 million judicial opinions from across the United States searchable and summarized in English and Spanish, including decisions from state supreme courts, appellate courts, federal district courts, federal appellate courts, the U.S. Supreme Court, and U.S. bankruptcy courts. Kara is also the co-host of Building AI Boston, a new show dedicated to welcoming everyone into the conversation around AI.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?
I grew up in Madison, Wisconsin during the 1970s and 1980s, which was a really different time to be a kid. “Mad City,” as we affectionately called it, was home to the huge University of Wisconsin, which made this small city far more cosmopolitan than you might expect for the Midwest. I essentially grew up on the campus and, because of this, was surrounded by all of the energy that comes from living in a college town. A famously progressive city, I was exposed to issues related to social justice very early. My extended family was also very active in social justice causes, so I was exposed to that way of thinking there as well.
My childhood was also marked by the freedoms of time (freedoms that kids of today sadly don’t experience). When school was out, we left the house in the morning and came back at dusk. In between were all of the adventures you can imagine (some good, some not so good). I was on my bike most days, riding to a friend’s house, swimming, and climbing trees. I was always a huge animal lover and the outdoors. For example, when we played Star Wars, I always wanted to be Chewbacca, never Princess Leia.
I also grew up with limited financial means, so I worked from an early age. When I was young, I had every job imaginable, from babysitting to a paper route to making sandwiches to working as a receptionist at the “fancy” salon in town. I loved working at the salon; clearing the sweat off the tanning beds between clients was the only part that stank. But on the upside, I was able to have a nice tan in the middle of winter in Wisconsin! Yes, of course, I regret that now.
But I don’t regret learning that if I wanted something, I would have to work for it myself. This is also how I got my drive and work ethic, which are major parts of my personality. I have been steadily employed for 40 years now and don’t ever see myself retiring. I will probably work until my last day on Earth.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I would love to tell you about my almost getting caught working under the table in a famous European capital, but I should not go into details about that. I can tell you that it gave me a great deal of empathy for undocumented workers everywhere.
So instead, I will tell you about what happened when I took a hard turn off the path I was on.
If you had told me at the beginning of my career that I would become a technology entrepreneur with an MBA and a deep love for strategy, I would have laughed in your face. Back then, I was a writer–a creator–and was highly suspicious of anything that smacked of “business.” In fact, I was highly suspicious of capitalism full stop. But that all changed when I was working as an editor at Boston University in 2001. One day I realized that as an employee, I could get a master’s degree for free. As someone who rarely had more than just enough to get by, I was thrilled by the opportunity. I looked around at what I could do at night (not all programs were offered part-time) and found the MBA program at the Questrom School of Business. It didn’t seem like my vibe, but I figured why not try — after all, it was FREE. But wow, was I wrong. The minute I started to learn about strategy, I was hooked. I can’t underestimate the impact this pivot had on my life. Fun fact, I was just named the inaugural Co-Chair of the Women in Business Alumni Affinity Council at the Questrom School of Business, Boston University.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
It is nearly impossible to pick one person, so I will cheat a bit and say what type of person helped me most. These would be the people who challenged me to be better. They were often bosses, but not always. These people saw something more in me than I saw in myself and pushed me to stretch myself to be more than I thought I could. When I look back at my career, these are the people who ended up being more like mentors or coaches than bosses, and they are the ones who helped me get to where I am today.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
One of the most profound things a boss ever said to me was, “Kara, you need to choose if this is the hill you want to die on.” I can’t even remember what the issue was. I was obsessed with it in the moment, but her response to my complaining was so on point, and I think about it all the time. This advice is still so relevant because it is so easy to get distracted by the petty annoyances in our work life. Personal slights, non-collaborative co-workers, poorly run projects. But the key is to always make sure your reaction is appropriate. I found out the hard way that I know precisely what hill I am willing to die on, and it is when I see my co-workers being abused or mistreated, especially if it is related to any aspect of their identity. But for me, that hill is worth fighting for.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
There are different ways to define what it means to be a successful business leader. Of course, the simplest definition is that of the leader who drives the most ROI. To me, that is really limited and frankly boring. Of course, financial success is critical, but the real way to be a successful business leader is to make meaningful changes and bring others along with you. Sometimes, this means you put them in front and let them get the spotlight. Sometimes, it means you do the hard work so they don’t have to. Sometimes, it means being hard on them so they learn. But it always means you feel deep in your heart that their success is your success. That is not a trait all leaders can or want to embrace. But I try to. For this type of leader, I think you need these three traits:
- Trust: You need to trust others and be open to their ideas, but ultimately, you really need to trust yourself.
- Loyalty: To people but also to ideals.
- Boldness: For yourself but also for others. Lead by example and help people be bold in their own careers, even if that means they end up outgrowing you and moving on to greener pastures. In fact, that should make you proud.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools that you are helping to create that can make a positive social impact on our society. To begin, what problems are you aiming to solve?
At descrybe.ai we are trying to do one thing, but to do it really well. And that one thing is democratizing access to the law. So what does that mean? In a nutshell, we are using AI to make it easier for people to access and understand US case law, which is something that belongs to all of us but is actually really hard to get at. The reasons for this are complex and, in some cases, warranted, but this issue is part of why we have such a huge justice gap in the United States. Increasing meaningful access to the law itself is a foundational part of the access to justice continuum.
How do you think your technology can address this?
We believe ethically built and socially conscious AI tools can meaningfully impact the justice gap — but only if we decide to prioritize this need. AI is the perfect tool to address the access to justice problem because there is far too great a need to ever “human” ourselves out of the problem. AI can help with some of the needs and also bring a level of efficiency to the legal sphere overall.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
My interest in this issue actually came from a personal experience. I found myself in a situation where I wanted to understand legal information and quickly learned just how difficult this was. I remember thinking that if it was this hard for me to do considering my privilege, then what must it be like for people with less access? This is where the idea for descrybe.ai was born.
How do you think this might change the world?
If we could begin to meaningfully address the access to justice crisis in the United States and across the globe, there would be an immediate and transformation impact. Not only would people get the information or legal help that they need, but we would also have the opportunity to fix what is a completely dysfunctional system. This would have repercussions far beyond the legal sphere.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
Artificial intelligence is a tool designed by humans, and that means it has all the problems humans have (bias being the most concerning one). Imagine a tool like a hammer. It can be used for good (to build someone a home who needs one) or bad (to smash someone’s fingers in a dystopian prison somewhere). Is the hammer good or evil? Obviously, it is neither. It is the human using the hammer who decides how it will be used, and that is good and bad because humans can be either. Obviously, AI is far more complicated than a hammer (a hammer can’t “think” or act independently), but the concept is still the same. We must decide what impact AI will have. AI needs safeguards and regulations around it so the good we get from it will outweigh the bad. But if we only rely on market forces for this, many of us will end up with broken fingers.
Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”?
- Don’t start with AI. Yes, it is hot right now, but so was blockchain yesterday. Start with the problem you want to solve and then explore which tech is most appropriate. Your problem may be a good fit for AI, but it may also not. There are plenty of other ways to innovate, so don’t worry if AI is not the right tool for this issue.
- Get a great crew of advisors who will help you in your journey. These could be advisors, friends, or loved ones. The point is to have people who will support you, your vision, and your dream of changing the world in different ways, financially, emotionally, and more. You need your crew to help you with this process.
- Be ready to flip the bird to convention, especially around the land of fundraising and venture capital. People will tell you your approach is never going to work. Don’t listen to them (well, sometimes listen to them).
- Really listen to your end user. Too many people in the “for good” space try to rush to a solution without understanding what people really need. This can lead to approaches that actually make things worse instead of better. It can also lead to savior syndrome, which helps nobody and even causes harm.
- Be open to listening and learning from others, but always be yourself.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
Because it is way more fun to change the world than to be rich, yes, really, it is.
As Steve Jobs famously said, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” I love working in the tech for social impact space and can’t imagine a better and more meaningful way to spend my limited time on Earth. This is what I love. If making the world better is what you wish you could do, but the realities of making a living and paying the bills are keeping you from the dream, don’t give up. After all, the end of the quote from Jobs was, “If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”
The other way to think about it is what do you want your loved ones to say about you after you are gone? Do you want them to say, “Wow, they amassed a lot of personal wealth and had a lot of cool possessions.” How basic. I would much rather have people say, “Wow, she used her creativity to change the world.”
Reject the American ideal that the richest person wins because that is a dumb way to measure the value of a life well-lived.
In the United States, we believe the only way to win is to get as much as possible for yourself. But that has led us to a place that is fraught and full of disaster. I hope young people reject this classic American trope that getting as rich as possible is the most essential goal in life. Personal wealth is fleeting, but changing the world lasts forever.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Melinda French Gates, without a doubt. I am fascinated by so many aspects of her life, from her succeeding in a male-dominated field like technology to her interest in systemic change and public health to the power of philanthropy to her belief that empowered women can change the world. She is quite simply amazing, and a lunch with her would be super inspirational as I try to make a difference in my own small way. I say lunch because I am not a morning person, so sorry Melinda, no breakfast for us!
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Visit our website at https://descrybe.ai and sign up for our emails. Also like and subscribe to Building AI Boston wherever you get your podcasts or visit our website https://buildingaiboston.com to learn more.
You can also follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kj-peterson) or descrybe.ai on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/descrybe-ai)
YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@descrybe)
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/descrybe_ai)
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Descrybe.aiLLC).
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.
Thank you for having me!
Social Impact Tech: Kara Peterson On How Their Technology Will Make An Important Posi was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.