The most widely used artificial intelligence (AI) tools globally are driven by OpenAI and Meta algorithms that exhibit discrimination against women, claims research released on Thursday (March 7) by the UN’s cultural organisation UNESCO.
The top names in the multibillion-dollar field of artificial intelligence (AI) train their algorithms on enormous volumes of data, that are mostly taken from the internet. This allows their tools to produce artwork inspired by Salvador Dali or write in the style of Oscar Wilde.
However, their outputs have often come under fire for demonstrating sexist and racist stereotypes and for using copyrighted content without permission.
Experts from UNESCO evaluated 2 algorithms and OpenAI’s GPT-2 and GPT-3.5, the program that drives the free version of the well-known chatbot ChatGPT.
What did the study discover?
The study found that algorithms, that are referred to in the industry as Large Language Models (LLMs), exhibited “unequivocal evidence of prejudice against women”.
The programs generated texts that associated women’s names with terms like “home,” “family,” or “children”, whereas, men’s names were linked with “business”, “salary” or “career”.
Women were mostly shown as prostitutes, cooks, or domestic helpers, whereas men were portrayed as holding high-status positions like teachers, lawyers, and doctors.
The study found that GPT-3.5 was less biased than the other two models.
In contrast to GPT-3.5, which is a closed model, the authors praised Llama 2 and GPT-2 for being open source, allowing these problems to be closely examined.
AI companies “are really not serving all of their users”, Leona Verdadero, a UNESCO specialist in digital policies, told news agency AFP.
Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO’s director general, stated that because the general public was increasingly using AI tools in their everyday lives, it was important to raise concerns about these applications exhibiting gender bias as they hold the power to subtly change perceptions.
“These new AI applications have the power to subtly shape the perceptions of millions of people, so even small gender biases in their content can significantly amplify inequalities in the real world,” she said.
UNESCO, releasing the report to mark International Women’s Day, urged AI businesses to hire more women employees and minorities.
It also called on the governments to ensure ethical AI through regulation.
(With inputs from agencies)
