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Gender perspective in Artificial Intelligence

Cernadas García, Eva; Calvo Iglesias, Encina

Published
2020-10-02
Repository
minerva.usc.es
Language
en

Abstract

In Spain, the majority of university students are women, but the gender distribution in different fields of study is uneven and there are certain disciplines, as engineering and some experimental sciences where less than 30% are women. This reduced participation of women, very low in disciplines related with technology motivates the hegemonic presence of androcentric and sexist values both in knowledge and in the products and information technologies that we can find in the market. In highly masculinized disciplines the inclusion of the gender perspective is important whenever the content, the results or the applications of a subject may affect human beings directly or indirectly. Specially, in disciplines related with technology where it is very common for men and women to be affected differently by technological developments. This paper focus in the context of Artificial Intelligence (AI) field, where the majority of professionals are men and their experiences shape and dominate algorithm creation. To recognize the existence of gender discriminatory biases in the algorithms and limit their consequences in the offline world, we need to introduce the gender perspective in these studies. In this document we analyze the degree of introduction of the gender perspective in the AI grades and how to improve the gender competences of the students

Full text

Gender perspective in AI Eva Cernadas and Encina Calvo-Iglesias Gender gap in STEM Gender gap in STEM Thelack of diversity in STEM is a problem because the low presence of women (or other minorities) affects research results, innovation and therefore society. Gender perspective in teaching Gender perspective in teaching Gender bias in IA Bachelors and masters in Artificial Intellegence of the Spanish universities ⚫In general, they include two types of competences: −Basic or generic competence: students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data to make judgements that include a reflection on relevant, social or ethical issues. −Specific transversal competence: students adquire the skills to apply in a socially responsible manner the ethical, legal and regulatory aspects related to the processing of data, the use of artificial intelligence techniques and the exploitation of the knowledge. Gender perspective in degrees of AI in the spanish universities ⚫We analyse 4 bachelors: only the bachelor in AI offered by Polithecnic University of Catalonia (UPC) includes the gender perspective as transversal competence. ⚫None of the 6 masters analyzed includes the gender perspective among their competencies. Some does not even include any ethical aspect.