The artificial intelligence industry is growing its influence in the public sphere as the technology increasingly enters every facet of life, from the workplace and academia to entertainment, healthcare, and even grocery shopping. But women are being left out of key decisions regarding artificial intelligence development and deployment, Harvard researchers argue in a newly published report.
In a survey of more than 5,000 American adults, researchers found that women were not only underrepresented in jobs directly involved in AI development, but they were also much less likely to use the technology itself. Men tend to use AI more often than women, both at work and in their personal lives, the survey found, while women reported receiving less access to AI training in the workplace.
“These gaps do not mean that higher AI use or greater trust should be goals in themselves,” the report says. The issue the findings highlight is how much influence men have over the trajectory of AI development and deployment versus women.
“Across genders, respondents say men’s needs and perspectives are better represented in AI development and AI-generated content,” the report says. “At best, underrepresentation may mean missed opportunities for value creation among certain groups. At worst, it may cause direct harm, reinforce existing social inequities, sow distrust, and perpetuate pipeline issues that limit who enters and advances in the field.”
Even though most respondents reported low overall trust in AI, women tend to trust AI less and associate it more with concern and anxiety. Meanwhile, men were more likely to see AI as a source of optimism, curiosity, and excitement.
Women have reason to hold a more negative opinion of AI than men. One of generative AI’s most prominent use cases in the past year has been to create and spread nonconsensual sexual deepfakes, most often of women and children. Recent reports also say that AI-related job losses are more likely to hit female-dominated fields like administrative, clerical, and customer service work.
Women also tend to be more concerned about the pace of data center development, according to another recent survey, this time by Morgan Stanley. In that survey, men were found to view AI considerably more positively than women, who were less likely to want a data center built near their homes or express concern about the lack of safeguards in AI development.
This gendered distrust could also be worsened by media representation. The Harvard survey found that media reports overwhelmingly quoted male AI experts at a rate disproportional to the actual makeup of the AI talent pool.
“The question now is who gets to decide on the future of AI and how much will women be involved,” the report’s co-author Laura Manley said in a press release.
Greater involvement of women in AI decision-making would likely benefit more than just women. One striking finding from the Harvard report illustrates why: Men tend to be more confident in their knowledge of AI, even when they’re wrong.
The researchers found that while men and women answered questions about AI incorrectly at roughly the same rate, men were far more likely to claim knowledge they didn’t actually have. For example, when presented with a list of supposedly influential figures in the AI industry, men were more likely to claim they recognized every name, even though the list included entirely fictional people. Women, meanwhile, were more likely to admit when they didn’t know the answer. Next time a Google AI summary confidently tells you something that’s dead wrong, think about that.
