A woman with a laptop next to a server room.
Credit: Christina Wocintechcha for Unsplash

As AI systems affect the working lives of more women, we must ensure these new technologies help to close gender gaps, not widen them.

Work around the globe is increasingly shaped by new technologies powered by artificial intelligence (AI). 

Developments in AI are already impacting women at work and we need to make sure the digital economy does not leave women behind. 

Today’s AI systems can present serious biases against women because AI systems are designed with data that look toward the past, while we as a society must look forward. 

A new joint report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford provides an overview of the existing research into how AI has affected, and may continue to affect, women’s working lives (you can register for free for the live launch event and panel discussion on Tuesday 8 March at 17:00 CET).

While emerging AI systems may present challenges to the working lives of women, their impacts are not yet fixed.

Without intentional attention to fairness, the widespread use of AI tools and technologies risks setting back our collective goal of achieving gender equality.

Discrimination, bias, and fairness in the design and use of AI tools must be addressed.

Through further research and action, we can ensure that AI’s use and adoption in workplaces around the world is trustworthy and a force for good on the working lives of women.

This is an excerpt from the full article by Prof. Gina Neff that can be read on the OECD AI website.