Third Edition of ‘The Evidence’: How Can We Overcome Sexism in AI?
This month’s installment of The Evidence explores how leading ethics experts are responding to the urgent dilemma of gender bias in AI.
In 2014, Maria Perez-Ortiz completed work on a machine-learning model to help doctors prioritize liver transplant waiting lists. Two years later, Perez-Ortiz discovered a critical issue: the model was assigning hardly any transplants to women.
For Perez-Ortiz, now UNESCO co-chair in artificial intelligence, this discovery was a wake-up call. She realized that “AI is simply a microcosm that reflects the world.” In other words, AI entrenches inequalities and amplifies pre-existing gender biases.
Building upon Perez-Ortiz’s analysis, in this issue of The Evidence journalist Josephine Lethbridge nuances pressing debates about how we use – and should be using – AI. She explores the gendered implications of AI in communities, workplaces, and policy.
Lethbridge draws upon the expertise of leading ethics thinkers to ask: What are the root causes of AI inequality? How can we reframe AI as a political, rather than technological, issue? How can we make AI fairer and better for everyone?
Read this month’s full newsletter. An archive of previous issues can be accessed through Social Science Space.
Sage – the parent of Social Science Space – sponsors The Evidence, a bold new feminist newsletter that covers everything you need to know about the latest social and behavioral science research into gender inequality. The newsletter makes research accessible and understandable, empowering readers to respond to today’s crises by making changes in their communities, their workplaces, or in the laws of their country.
