One of the panelists at the centre of a row over widespread misogyny in the Northern (and wider) tech scene has spoken out as the debate following a recent event in Manchester continues.
StealthMode founder and The 84 Podcast co-host Omar Latif (pictured) was debating with Liberty Apps founder Steve Hilton at the Manchester Futurists “AI – Are We F**ked?” event earlier this month, an occasion which his opposite number Hilton accused of “downplaying” statistics on deep fake porn and sexual abuse related to online activity, an audience member calling for rights for straight white men, and organiser Hilton issuing an email apologising for the “drunken” behaviour of moderator Anne Marie O’Neill, the founder of Ops First Consultancy and a Fractional Ops director with over 15 years’ experience leading operational transformation across the tech, e-commerce, and creative sectors, as she attempted to control the situation.
As accusations continue to fly, panelist Latif, who gained his first degree when he was 14 in mathematics and includes an app to predict “best value” Metro usage in Manchester as well as one to monitor the spatial patterns of raindrops among his early experiments in AI, has given his own take on the situation to Prolific North, condemning a scene that he describes as entitled, misogynistic and boisterous.
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“In a post-Lawrence Jones Manchester tech scene, it is deeply unsettling to see such entitlement and misogyny still prevalent and unashamedly boisterous,” he said.
“Our city prides itself on diversity and pitches itself as progressive. So we must confront the uncomfortable truth: success, status, or a polished image cannot excuse discrimination, or the silencing of marginalised voices, as was seen during and post the Futures event.
“So many co-working spots and companies across the city holds the Tony Wilson quote somewhere on the walls, ‘This is Manchester, we do things differently,’ but after witnessing the regressive opinions spoken so openly, it only emphasised the point that some of our community members need to look in the mirror and realise that they really don’t.
“Female-led startup teams secure less than 2% of total investment in the UK. Ethnic Minority-led businesses are three times less likely than White British-led businesses to have their lending applications accepted, according to new research for the LSB by RFI Global. These statistics, amongst other more disturbing facts, were dismissed and downplayed at Futurists, raising the question of whether it is actually AI that is leading us to be f***ked or is it because of some of the people building it or using it.
“We see so many events about diversity popping up on LinkedIn now, but this all seems to be misdirected energy, with the real question being, was there any money allocated, who did it go to, how did they spend it, and what were the outcomes?
“It’s incredibly disappointing to be in a room full of industry professionals, to be confronted with the notion that Domestic Violence against women is not an issue, genocide because they don’t look like me is not relevant, racial bias that has outcomes of people going to jail or losing their home is regrettable, but we move on.
“What sort of a community are we building when prevalent individuals in the Manchester tech scene can unashamedly write off sexual assault / racial discrimination / lived experience as innocuous and inconsequential, as it doesn’t affect them?
“If that’s not bad enough, he then went on to fabricate a story about the woman in the room to avoid any accountability for those deeply concerning opinions. Anne Marie wasn’t drunk, she was subjected to hearing shocking opinions spoken freely, just as I and the rest of the room were. Unfortunately, that display of abuse of power imbalance only goes to show that more work needs to be done at all levels to ensure that, going forward, Manchester really does do things differently and history stops repeating itself.”
