Wisdom From the Women Leading The AI Industry, With Tanya Van Gastel of the Multiverse AI

An Interview With Vanessa Morcom

Good role models and community! Role models help people understand something is attainable. If she can do it, maybe I can do it too. I see that with strong female friendships. They can be a huge source of strength and support. They are for me.

As part of our series about the women leading the Artificial Intelligence industry, we had the pleasure of interviewing Tanya Van Gastel.

Tanya Van Gastel is co-founder & CMO of the Multiverse AI, the go-to AI headshot generator for professionals, with clients ranging from Google and Walmart to Deloitte. For her insights on AI and tech trends, Tanya has featured in Forbes, Wall Street Journal, and BBC. With over a decade of experience in tech marketing, she previously worked at OnePlus, the EU Chamber of Commerce, and global venture capital firm Orbit Startups.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you share with us the ‘backstory” of how you decided to pursue this career path in AI?

I’ve always been very curious and fascinated with technology. From a young age, you’d find me reading science-fiction novels. That translated quite directly into growing up with a finger on the pulse for the latest kind of tech. That curiosity took me from Belgium to Shanghai and Shenzhen, where I worked long hours in China tech, then Germany and now, I’m in beautiful and balmy Barcelona.

When generative AI applications started taking off, I was spending all my free time learning how to use them. There were no manuals. With enough trial and error, tools like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion and DALL-E enable you to create illustrations you’d never dreamed of. I made stills for movies that never existed, capybara affirmations and icon sets to learn more. I like to explore and experiment, with generative that suddenly became a lot more accessible. Experimenting led to excitement, led to early ideas for a startup and culminated in approaching my wonderful co-founders with an idea for an AI headshot generator. When we started, we were just three people with a passion for AI and Mexican food. One year later, that’s still the same but we’ve also built a bootstrapped six figure business.

What lessons can others learn from your story?

Be brave. Go chase a dream you have, or talk to your role models. Who knows they may reply. Your worst case scenario is that you are exactly where you are now. Your best case is that it may change your life.

When I was 19, I wrote a long letter. I discovered a scholarship. It was past the deadline to apply when I found out about it, but I applied anyway. I can only assume someone somewhere said “Okay… This random girl from Belgium, she seemingly can’t even adhere to deadlines… But we’re gonna let her in”. That allowed me to go abroad and expand my horizons.

I’d have never been where I am now, if not for that one person. I don’t know who they are, but I am grateful. To them and every single other person I’ve met who has helped or pushed me in some way to do better, be better and persevere. I think of almost every opportunity I’ve ever been given. There’s usually been a person behind it. I hope to pay that forward.

Can you tell our readers about the most interesting projects you are working on now?

Making the best AI headshot generator is probably the most interesting. The technology is advancing so rapidly, so we’re always working on implementing the latest AI headshot technology.

Capybara Affirmation AI is a pet project of mine. It’s a pro-wellbeing project designed to alleviate stress. I trained an AI, a GPT with DALL-E and code interpreter, on images of capybaras, and added AI affirmations. Affirmations are positively loaded phrases that are used to challenge negative thoughts. In clinical trials, affirmations have been proven to create neural pathways that reduce negative emotions and increase positive self-worth, they activate brain regions involved in positive self-view and psychological well-being.

Affirmations quite literally make you happier, scientifically speaking. Capybara Affirmation AI amplifies that with cute capybaras. You text it what you are anxious about, and it’ll give you a custom image of a capybara with a positive affirmation text, tailored to your anxiety. A Capybara Affirmation. It’s AI for positivity. I can’t think of a better use case.

Lastly, I work with organizations like Women in Voice, Beyond Boundaries and more to bring attention to how we can combat bias in AI which is something I’m very passionate about.

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?

Ah. That would be my mom. She is the one person who I know has my back, always, unconditionally. I can send a dumb email or even a thousand dumb emails. She would still love me unconditionally. There is nothing I can do to change that. It makes a world of difference.

I remember when I left my corporate job to pursue the startup life. I was somewhat nervous telling her my plans. When I was younger, my Asian mom often hammered into me the importance of financial stability, independence, and the virtues of a traditional career trajectory. Starting a business could easily jeopardize the financial stability I’d worked hard to earn.

So I was bracing myself. But she surprised me. She really looked me in the eye and said “You know, you are so smart and I think you can do anything”. That meant so much. There’s this one person in the world who believes in me no matter what. That kind of support can really propel a person. It’s a very powerful thing. It also makes me want to make her proud.

What are the 3 things that most excite you about the AI industry? Why?

The first is that we are just at the tip of the iceberg. AI has only just begun to transform everything. To me, hard science is just one part of it. It’s the implementation and execution of them that are fascinating.

The second is that AI has this formidable potential to be a great equalizer. Andrew Ng has a wonderful Ted talk about this concept that I’d highly recommend people check out.

Lastly, the idea of what an AI company is, is changing very rapidly. We’re seeing bootstrap entrepreneurs rise up out of nowhere. Simple ideas with elegant executions prevail. Many more people are now able to get their foot in the door, no matter their background and I love that.

What are the 3 things that concern you about the AI industry? Why?

Can they be the same? I’d say bias three times. Bias, bias, bias.

There’s this brilliant book called Invisible Women. It talks about how most things in the modern world are designed well, but designed by men with men in mind. They often don’t work for women.

Car crash dummies are based on the average male, resulting in women being 20% more likely to die in a car crash. Women are 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed after a heart attack. Even medications are often only tested on men. There’s a huge gender data gap. The likelihood that this will persist with AI seems really high. I find that very concerning.

But taking a step back, I think we are on the right track. There is reason to be optimistic.

There’s this age-old question about… If you could, which time period would you like to go back to? I think for most women, the answer is none. We have it better now than 50 years, 100, 150 years ago. So that tells me, yes, women have it better now. Better than before. Of course, we can still do better.

As you know, there is an ongoing debate between prominent scientists, (personified as a debate between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg,) about whether advanced AI has the future potential to pose a danger to humanity. What is your position about this?

I think the debate about AGI is… early. I often think that AI taking over my job isn’t a threat, it’s a promise. I’d love for it to be capable of doing some more of my email, powerpoints, and meetings. But we’re not close.

In the short-term, I think we have bigger fish to fry: socio-economic, environmental and ecological fish.

What can be done to prevent such concerns from materializing? And what can be done to assure the public that there is nothing to be concerned about?

Human-in-the-loop systems to ensure oversight. Robust regulation to govern AI deployment, setting standards for safety, transparency, and accountability.

That being said, I do think AI is getting normalized very quickly. Given a long enough timeframe, nearly everything can be normalized. Twenty years ago, we wouldn’t have even had the imagination to consider the revolutionary aspects of the internet, or smartphones. Yet now it’s so basic. I tap tap on a screen and beam a photo straight from my handheld device into the handheld device of anyone in the world. That’s absolutely crazy.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share a story?

We donate headshots to non-profit organizations and jobseekers with the Multiverse AI. The first line of recruitment is often through a LinkedIn profile. Having a great headshot really helps. We’re happy to contribute to someone being able to find a job. Please feel free to reach out to me if you are a non-profit organization looking for headshot support.

As you know, there are not that many women in your industry. Can you share 5 things you need to thrive as a woman in the AI industry?

Tenacity. Courage. Resilience. Guts. Giving yourself grace. Those things go a long long way.

I think for the longest time, I had a certain view on what ‘success’ meant. I thought people who I looked up to were the smartest, the best. But it’s not necessarily about that. The people I look up to tend to display some measure of tenacity, courage and resilience. What some people call ‘guts’. I try to remind myself of that.

I think as women we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to be ‘deserving’ of being in a space. We feel like imposters. We think we’re too young, too old, too short, too tall, too this, too that. We’re so hard on ourselves. It’s never good enough. But it’s not about any of that. I’m in a lot of spaces like AI, founder nights or even when I join an entrepreneur discord server, where I am one of the few, if not the only, woman. On a primitive level, your gut tells you to run away when you enter a group of people where nobody looks like you. But those spaces tend to have the unique capability to unlock opportunity and so, you stay. You stay and you go easy on yourself. Give yourself some grace and remind yourself there’s a reason you’re in that space, even if you don’t always believe it.

Can you advise what is needed to engage more women into the AI industry?

Good role models and community! Role models help people understand something is attainable. If she can do it, maybe I can do it too. I see that with strong female friendships. They can be a huge source of strength and support. They are for me.

What is your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that had relevance to your own life?

I’m generally a big reader. But lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about this video of Shuzo Matsuoka. He goes “You must be frustrated. I know it. Lots of things don’t always go as planned. And life is like that. But, if you don’t give up at that point. There will be another opportunity for sure!” and he says it with so much gusto. Startup life has many ups, and many downs. That video is what I think about when things get hard. And things get hard all the time. But it’s okay. Life is like that.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Maybe a capybara affirmation movement. In general, more “AI for social good” use cases. AI for sustainability. AI for positivity.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

I’m on LinkedIn at Tanya Van Gastel.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

About The Interviewer: Vanessa Morcom is a millennial mom of three and founder of Morcom Media, a performance PR shop for thought leaders. She earned her degree in journalism and worked for Canada’s largest social enterprise. She can be reached at vanessa@morcom.media