Baseline: Tech Bros Tackle Diversity Among Co-Op Members

Baseline Solidarity Cooperative in Artificial Intelligence (Baseline) was a solidarity co-operative located in Québec City, Canada. It offered artificial intelligence (AI) consulting and development services that aspired to be different than the usual Silicon Valley response and considered social justice issues. By late 2023, the co-op was past the initial start-up hurdles, and the members were ready to position Baseline to grow, but they wanted to grow their team with attention to diversity. While they successfully recruited a woman to join the co-op in a leadership role and had advanced other diversity considerations, by January 2025, Baseline had still not managed to recruit a woman in a technical expert role. What could and should Baseline do about its assumed social responsibilities to increase diversity in a context that contained so many systemic barriers to prevent it?