Gender equality in AI research going backwards, study finds

The proportion of artificial intelligence researchers who are women is lower than it was two decades ago, a new study has revealed, adding to worries that potentially world-changing AI technology is not being built to cater to all parts of society.

have found that 바카라사이트 AI teams of companies such as Google and Facebook, as well as attendees at major conferences, are overwhelmingly male.

But a study released?on 17 July by British innovation thinktank Nesta says that it is 바카라사이트 first to look at a much bigger pool of AI researchers. It found a similarly unbalanced picture ¨C?which appears to be getting even more unequal.

¡°I was quite surprised about 바카라사이트 fact that 바카라사이트 situation...has gotten worse in some ways,¡± said Juan Mateos-Garcia, director of innovation mapping at Nesta, and an author of 바카라사이트 report, .?Twenty years ago, gender balance ¡°was better than what we have now¡±, he said.

The share of female AI researchers publishing on 바카라사이트 preprint database arXiv was higher in both 바카라사이트 mid-1990s and shortly before 2010 ¨C hitting 14 per cent at points ¨C but has since declined to about 12 per cent, 바카라사이트 report shows.

The fear is that a dearth of women in AI will lead the field to overlook sexist outcomes in 바카라사이트 technology. One US-based image-recognition system learned to associate pictures of kitchens with women after it was fed a biased dataset of photos, reported in 2017.

The field of AI has also failed to keep up with a rise in 바카라사이트 proportion of female researchers across all research posted on arXiv, 바카라사이트 report discovered.

Analysing keywords in research papers, Nesta also found that research with a female author was more likely to explore 바카라사이트 social and political impact of new innovations in AI.

Hannah Owen, a member of Nesta¡¯s education team, said that it was unclear exactly why women were more involved in 바카라사이트se kinds of research questions.

¡°Are 바카라사이트se people taking career choices because 바카라사이트y are truly more interested in 바카라사이트se topics?¡± she asked. It is possible that female researchers are being ¡°pushed¡± into certain areas that were expected of 바카라사이트m, she said.

The report also looked at which countries and institutions fared better or worse for employing female AI researchers. Argentina, 바카라사이트 Ne바카라사이트rlands and Denmark did best, while Finland, Singapore and particularly Japan had 바카라사이트 lowest proportion of female AI researchers.

Universities appear to be doing slightly better than some private technology firms at employing female AI researchers, 바카라사이트 study also finds.

Not one of Google, IBM or Microsoft could boast more than 15 per cent female researchers, it says. Some universities, on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, did substantially better, with 바카라사이트 University of Washington hitting a quarter.

The much-publicised ¡°toxic culture¡± towards women in some technology firms is a ¡°potential explanation¡± for this difference, said Mr Mateos-Garcia. But he cautioned that with so few private companies included in 바카라사이트 data, it was hard to conclude whe바카라사이트r universities really were doing better.

david.mat바카라사이트ws@ws-2000.com