A few months back, while preparing a workshop on gender stereotypes and biases, I came across research by the World Economic Forum suggesting a significant gender gap among AI professionals, with only 22% of AI professionals globally being female, compared to 78% being male. Perhaps I was expecting it, but I still found it not just disturbing; more than that. I thought it’s dangerous and I’ll explain why right away.

An algorithm that has been coded by humans, may reflect biases of the developers. If the data collected and used for the development of AI is gender biased, the results will also be biased, leading as a consequence to biased decisions in a number of fields, including for example hiring decisions.