What you probably already know: As AI usage continues to proliferate, men still make up a majority of companies and organizations responsible for AI development. Data shows that men hold eight out of every 10 AI jobs and nearly nine in 10 senior leadership positions responsible for shaping its growth. Women have largely been excluded from foundational conversations and efforts in building the increasingly ubiquitous technology.
Why it matters: Women and people of color are being disproportionately affected by immediate negative side effects of AI. A global analysis of 133 AI systems found that 44 percent showed gender bias, and 25 percent showed combined gender and racial bias. Another Johns Hopkins University study found that AI chatbots generally provided less formal, lower-grade responses when user prompts included female-associated language habits. The United Nations also found that one in four female human rights activists and journalists had been victims of AI-assisted online violence.
What’s being done: UN Women recently launched a new Digital, Innovation, and AI Hub that is solely dedicated to advocating for gender equality in these spaces. The Hub is intended to serve as a connection point for researchers, governments, tech companies, AI leaders, and women’s rights organizations in order to ensure that more gender-focused policies are incorporated into the technology’s development. “AI can deepen gender equality or help overcome it,” UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous said in a prepared statement. “That is a human choice — and those choices are being made now by engineers, companies, investors and governments.”
What’s next: The hub will focus on building new data sets on how these technologies affect women, support participating groups in creating more gender-inclusive policies, and work with companies to incorporate these policies into new technology designs. UN Women also hopes that the hub will strengthen the UN’s ability to apply digital governance moving forward.
