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Where are the women in AI?

When it comes to chatbots and humanoid robots, women appear regularly. They have names like Alexa and Siri – chatbots gendered as women, but designed by male dominated teams. 

Chatbot technology and robotics are evolving rapidly, and women are there but not as makers. Instead, men are responsible for re-coding women's identity within technology – amplifying gendered issues from the past – and without inclusion of real women's voices. 


The Information School is working with feminist network Women Reclaiming AI to create a platform for women to reclaim their voices in AI. The team will design a collaborative statement on how women in AI wish to be (or not be) represented in a technology-driven present and future. 


The project will bring together women from across the globe to assert their own needs, wants and desires within technological development. 


Dr Caitlin Bentley, Lecturer within the Information School, is helping to create the statement. She said, “we want to reclaim female representation in the field and stop the perpetuation of myths and subservient gendered archetypes that are being reinforced through the male drive of technology.” 


“Our lives are becoming dominated by smart machines, and every aspect of living is being transformed by artificial intelligence and machine learning. The teams making these world changing technologies, however, are non-diverse. It’s really important for us to drive forward that diversity and intersectionality when it comes to the future of technology.”


Find out more about the Women Reclaiming AI project.
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