“For many years, people have been reinforcing sexist stereotypes about her in their own way Artificial Intelligencesays a study signed by researchers from the British University of Cambridge.
“Only 8% of Hollywood films and the international film industry in general feature female AI expertswith the vast majority being men,” the researchers report.
The study points out that the movie theater it generally presents artificial intelligence as the product of some solitary genius, almost always male, possessed by some “creator-god complex”. These perceptions subconsciously influence both genders’ career choices and hiring choices by employers, with the result that the AI industry today suffers from large gender disparities. Which probably has an impact on the “smart” technology itself.
“The lack of women constitutes a great risk for the intrusion of sexist bias”
The study speaks of a “dangerous cultural stereotype” that has gradually become established over a century of cinema, contributing to the underrepresentation of of women in the field of artificial intelligence. The lack of women poses a great risk for sexist bias to creep into critical algorithms that will play an ever-increasing role in the future.
Researchers at Cambridge’s Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI), who published in the journal Public Understanding of Science, analyzed more than 1,400 films from 1920-2020, focusing on 142 that had the greatest impact on relation to artificial intelligence. In these films, 116 roles of scientists and engineers that can be described as “artificial intelligence professionals” were identified.
Of these, 92% were men, up from the current estimated 78% of men (versus 22% of women) in the AI industry. Of the 116 roles, about a third of the scientists (37 lead characters) are presented as geniuses, and of those only one is a woman. 22% of male scientists in movies create artificial intelligence with human characteristics in order to fulfill some desire, such as replacing a lost love or creating the partner of their dreams or – the most narcissistic – a copy of themselves.
Typical cases are films like “Iron Man” (2008) and “Ex Machina” (2014) which present artificial intelligence as having been created by a genius man. After 100 years of cinema only eight women appear to have expertise in artificial intelligence and of those half are portrayed as inferior to men.
The first well-known film to feature a female AI creator on screen was the 1997 comedy Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Other films with female AI roles are: Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), Avengers : Infinity War (2018), Transcendence (2014), The Machine (2013), Inspector Gadget (1999), I, Robot (2004), Ghost in the Shell (2017) and The Emoji Movie (2017).
There is a great lack of female directors who have dealt with the issue of artificial intelligence: in fact, so far not a single major film with a related script has been directed exclusively by a woman. Only in the Captain Marvel film was a woman (Anna Boden) co-directing with a man.
“Gender inequality in the AI industry is systemic and pervasive. Commercial motion pictures are a highly influential img and multiplier of cultural stereotypes that help determine who is suitable for a career in AI. Our study shows that women are severely underrepresented as AI scientists on screen. It is necessary to be careful so that these cultural stereotypes do not become a self-fulfilling prophecy, as we enter the age of artificial intelligence” pointed out researcher Kanda Dihal, as reported by the Athens News Agency.
The study points out that, in addition to artificial intelligence in cinema, there is a stereotype in society in general and across all ages that outstanding mental ability is the prerogative of men.
“Genius is not a neutral concept. It is an idea based on gendered and racialized notions of intelligence, historically shaped by a white male elite. Some influential tech experts like Elon Musk have deliberately cultivated a ‘genius’ persona, clearly based on movie characters like Iron Man,” said LCFI director Dr Stephen Cave.
Source: News Beast
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