Gender Equality Commissioner warns AI can perpetuate gender stereotypes

Nicosia, Cyprus. Artificial intelligence is already reproducing human biases and gender stereotypes, Gender Equality Commissioner Josie Christodoulou said at the Cyprus Forum. She said women’s participation in designing and developing technology is increasingly important.

How bias enters AI systems

Speaking during the fireside discussion “AI and Equal Participation: Who Shapes the Digital State?”, Christodoulou said AI systems reflect both the material on which they are trained and the people who create them. The discussion was chaired by Andreas Demetriou, founding member and Legal Advisor of AI³, and Rodoula Papalambrianou, Scientific Coordinator at Hope For Children CRC Policy Center.

“We start by confirming that indeed AI is biased,” Christodoulou said. AI models learn from existing material that may contain entrenched stereotypes, she explained. If a model is given a thousand books in which every doctor is a man and every nurse is a woman, it will assume the next doctor is a man. “It perpetuates the bias,” she said.

Education and representation

Christodoulou said women’s underrepresentation in technology and innovation matters because those developing systems influence what is built and whose experiences are considered. Schools have a central role in giving girls opportunities to pursue science, she said, while boys and girls should be free to choose their educational and career paths.

She also pointed to women entering technology-related professions and later leaving them, particularly when they decide to have a family. She said cultural expectations and stereotypes begin shaping choices at a young age.

“Technology must be designed to serve women. The decision-making must include them,” Christodoulou said.