Artificial intelligence technologies today ‘perpetuating gender bias’, says expert

It is crucial to have more women in artificial intelligence roles to tackle the current gender bias in the technology, said Ms Ruby Pryor, founder and CEO of user experience consulting firm REX. 

As of 2022, only 30 per cent of AI talent were women, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023. 

“We need more women in AI because the technologies as they exist today are perpetuating gender bias,” Ms Pryor told CNA’s Asia Now on Friday (Mar 8), which marks International Women's Day.

“We are seeing AI influencing everything from our healthcare to our financial products, to our role in the workplace. So it's more important than ever that we are creating technologies that are equally accessible and are not going to have ingrained bias.”

AI IMPACTING OUR DAILY LIVES

She highlighted subtle examples of gender bias online that people might not notice. 

“So one that I see time and time again when I'm filling in online forms is that when they come to list the genders, they'll list male before female despite ‘f’ being before ‘m’ in the alphabet,” she added. 

“This may sound like something really little, but it's just one example of a lot of different ways that we could see gender bias perpetuated in technology.”

In healthcare, for instance, some AI algorithms can make faulty assumptions about women, which can lead to misdiagnosis. In financial services, women may be given lower spending limits or face more frequent credit rejections compared to men. 

“It matters so much because these technologies underpin more and more of our daily lives,” said Ms Pryor. 

However, she noted that there are more women making strides in the AI space, and said “we need to make sure we're highlighting them, (and) funding them for every opportunity to succeed”. 

One way to support such women and increase the likelihood of retaining them is to provide flexible work environments that work for mothers, in particular. 

“Mothers are the ones often that really bear the brunt of a lot of this in the workplaces. So it's really important that we have excellent parental leave policies,” said Ms Pryor. 

“Something that can really help to move the needle is making sure that male carers also have access to really good parental leave in workplaces as well, because this can help to address that gap when it comes to caretaking responsibilities.”

USING AI TO PROGRESS IN THEIR CAREERS

However, there are signs that more women are equipping themselves with AI skills to advance in their careers. 

“AI has the potential to be a very powerful tool for fostering more inclusive and more sustainable economic growth and development,” said Ms Lim Hui Yi, director of economics strategy at public policy consultancy Access Partnership.

A new study found that women workers in the Asia Pacific are more interested in developing AI skills than their counterparts in the United States and Britain.

The research by Access Partnership was commissioned by Amazon Web Services, and comes as AI adoption ramps up in the workplace.

The study suggests workers in the Asia-Pacific region with AI skills could see their salaries boosted by more than 30 per cent and enjoy faster career progression.

Within the region, women in middle-income countries, such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, are more interested in developing AI skills than those in high-income countries, like Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea. 

Ms Lim highlighted several factors driving this interest by women in middle-income countries, including the perceived potential for AI skills to contribute to higher wages and career progression. 

“Generally, women in middle income economies face resource constraints and challenges in advancing their careers. The prospect for AI skills to therefore provide additional possibilities for earning higher wages and advancing careers is particularly appealing,” she told CNA’s Asia First. 

“This sort of drives some of the differences that we see between the middle-income economies as well as the higher-income economies.”

While employers in the Asia Pacific have identified hiring workers with AI skills to be a priority, many are unable to find the AI talent that they need, said Ms Lim. 

“Going forward, in terms of how we can close the gap, there is a role for both the government… as well as for companies to help play a role to upskill workers, especially for women, to try and close this gap in STEM (science, tech, engineering and maths) education, as well as the ICT (information and communications technology) sector.”