With International Women’s Day being celebrated at the start of the month, we have been looking into elements of the tech industry that may not be as equal as they seem. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the future of technology we we need to address this sooner rather than later.
We are wanting to create a gender neutral environment now before it becomes too developed. With Artificial Intelligence being made by humans, they encompass a lot of human bias’ – including gender bias. If only 19% of the tech industry are women, this will only increase gender bias within AI. Adapting data based on just one half of the population can create issues. Seatbelts, headrests and airbags are largely based on car crash dummies that have the physique of men. Therefore making the odds of serious injury or death for female car crash victims 73% higher than males – we must start now!
Where is AI gender bias?
Platforms that adopt the human language such as Alexa and Apple have been seen do adopt gender bias. In the past, receptionists and builders have been categorised as being women or male orientated jobs. Therefore, AI fills in sentences like “Father is a doctor and mother is a nurse” – this cannot be used to reflect modern society.
How do we avoid gender bias in AI?
Like everything in life it must be quantified. Ensuring there is diversity and equality within the samples, so using both women and men with equal amounts of data. Consequently, the data will mirror a diverse population and hopefully steer away from gender bias.
What will the future look like for gender bias in AI?
Bias may be unavoidable and hard to diminish, but the future research within technology should focus on being as unbiased as possible. Bringing in and representing other gender variants such as transgender, non-binary etc. is a must. As technology progresses we look to look to progressively create non bias. Meaning we should acknowledge and take action to create a gender neutral environment for the future.
Want to get into the world of Artificial Intelligence? Search our jobs or get in touch via telephone – 01244 567 567.
