The UN cultural organization Unesco has created a network of women experts on artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent the technology from being designed unilaterally towards men. While digital technologies are changing everyday life, women are underrepresented in their research and design, the cultural organization of the United Nations (UN) announced on Tuesday in Paris. Their needs and experiences are neglected by developers and data used to design artificial intelligence is often biased to the detriment of women and girls.
“There is an urgent need to rebalance the situation of women in AI, to avoid biased analysis and to build technologies that take into account the expectations and needs of all of humanity,” said Unesco Secretary-General Audrey Azoulay. The “Women4Ethical AI” network with 17 recognized experts from science, civil society, business and regulatory authorities serves this purpose. They should exchange research there, create a frame of reference and advise governments and companies.
When developing and using AI systems, there is a risk that existing gender prejudices will be duplicated and reinforced and new ones will emerge, according to Unesco. A lack of diversity in data, programming teams, or approaches leads to biased AI tools that produce discriminatory results. These would be used to make important decisions for daily life.
An example of the harmful effects of biased data is medical diagnoses based on data from men. The Unesco platform aims to promote the development of non-discriminatory algorithms and data sources and create incentives for women and underrepresented groups to engage in AI. Currently, only 20 percent of employees in machine learning technical roles, 12 percent of global artificial intelligence researchers, and 6 percent of professional software developers are women.