The ‘CEO’ is a man: how Chinese artificial intelligence perpetuates gender biases

The study found searching for words like ‘CEO’ or ‘scientist’ often returns images of mostly men

Algorithms have been scrutinised across the world for their ability to reinforce cultural stereotypes

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A report out of Shanghai says one way to improve gender imbalances in artificial intelligence is to provide more education opportunities for girls and women. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 9:00am, 30 Sep 2021Updated: 2:51pm, 4 Oct 2021

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into modern society, evidence suggests that the algorithms meant to help eliminate cultural biases have problems of their own, and Chinese companies are no different.

A report published on Monday by the Mana Data Foundation, a Shanghai-based public welfare foundation, and UN Women, found systematic prejudices against women in many programmes.

For example, on major Chinese search engines like Baidu, Sogou and 360, words like “engineer”, “CEO” or “scientist” returned mostly images of men.

Furthermore, searching keywords like “women” or “feminine” often resulted in derogatory videos and photos, or links to content such as “a women’s sexual techniques” and information about vaginas.

The team behind the gender biases report celebrates its release. Photo: UN Women

The report’s purpose was to provide concrete evidence for gender discrimination in AI algorithms so that companies learn about the problem and fix it.

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