How AI Reinforces Gender Stereotypes (Trend Brief)

AI is What We Design It to Be

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been heralded as a tool that can enhance human capacities and improve services,1 influence the future of work,2 create jobs,3 and serve as an equalizer by reducing bias in decisions by making predictions with algorithms based on data.4Yet AI, ultimately, is what humans design it to be, learn, and do. This means that AI, by definition, is not neutral. Rather, it reflects the biases held by those who build it, reinforcing stereotypes based on those biases.5

Stereotypes are widely held, oversimplified generalizations about a group of people.6 This sort of “shorthand” categorization is based on the assumption that all members of a particular group are the same. Whether explicitly or implicitly, when stereotypes influence our perceptions and decision-making, members of stereotyped groups can be disadvantaged, and damage can be done.7