Too many of our public conversations over the past few years have become polarised. Take any topic, be it fake news, conspiracy theories or artificial intelligence (AI). We might think that we can retreat from culture wars to a safer, more neutral place where subjectivity, privilege and vested interests have no place but we would be wrong.
While around the world women are protesting for more rights, more safety, better health, pay, representation and so on, in a more digital, less tangible space, machines, technology and AI are reinforcing some of the problems women face. In fact, in some cases, when it comes to sexism, AI is exacerbating the problem.
Take the example of an experiment run by Dora Vargha, senior lecturer in Medical Humanities at the University of Exeter in the UK, the results of which she posted on Twitter last week. She used Google to translate phrases from Hungarian, a gender-neutral language, to English. The output read like a 1950s gender roles text book: “She is beautiful. He is clever. He reads. She washes the dishes. He builds. She sews. He teaches. She cooks. He’s researching. She’s raising a child,” said the translation.
As Ms Vargha explained, since Hungarian has no gendered pronouns, Google Translate chooses the gender for you. “Here is how everyday sexism is consistently encoded in 2021," she added.
The problem was with the data. The algorithm seeks out words and references to which they are most associated within the existing data. So the gender stereotypes that exist within the data is what informs the algorithm, which then produces results such as the stereotypical gender pronouns.
When data is created, the male pronoun is considered the norm, which means that outputs relating to women are non-existent, or worse inappropriate or dangerous.
For example, according to a 2011 study by the University of Virginia Centre for Applied Biomechanics, women were allegedly less likely to be in a car accident than men, but 47 per cent more likely to be seriously injured. A newer paper published by the same university in 2019 though showed a reduced gender risk and reported that the risk for women in car crashes was now as high as 73 per cent. One theory to explain this wide gap in results is that till 2003 in the US, only male car crash test dummies were used. Even now, only a five feet tall female dummy that weighs 110 pounds (50kg) is used, which researchers believe is not an accurate representation of female bodies.
Since current data is built on social bias and stereotypes, that is what AI perpetuates
Again, a lot of these issues stem from the data that is being entered. AI uses existing data to feed into the model upon which it makes its predictions. And since current data is built on social bias and stereotypes, that is what it perpetuates. Sexism is being woven into the fabric of our future in these ways, while people are under the misapprehension that with time we are freeing ourselves from sexism of the past. It is a dangerous paradox, and one which could lead to complacency that things have been solved when, in fact, they have worsened.
Take another example. A study at the University of Melbourne this year found that AI used for recruitment could discriminate against women because of the criteria used to identify "good" candidates – that is, women in continuous employment rather than those who take career breaks. Due to maternity laws in Australia and existing social structures, women are more likely to take career breaks for the sake of raising children. That reality is, of course, not a verdict on how valuable they were as employees before the break. But the quantification of realities such as maternity leave into data sets can easily discriminate, however unwittingly, against who is a good employee and who is not.
This leads to the second part of the discrimination built into AI – it is made up of both what is going into the system, as well as who is setting up the models and entrenching their own perspectives and biases into it. Which is to say, AI is only as good as the data that goes into it and Unesco says only 22 per cent of AI professionals worldwide are women. So it's not surprising that most of the data is fed by men.
Such facts make one wonder about why digital personal assistants are programmed on female templates – Apple's Siri, Google's Alexa and Microsoft's Cortana – the existence of which reinforces the obsolete notion that administration and secretarial tasks should be carried out only by women. A UN report in 2019, in fact, made the same point – that such female virtual assistants are reinforcing negative stereotypes about women.
When we think about the larger role that AI will go on to play in our societies, it is important to be aware of the biases that can proliferate due to what's fed into the system. The way to solve these problems is to be hawkish about the data that is entered, and to ensure that people who input that data, regardless of gender, are trained to check their own prejudices.
If we don’t do this, then a world free of sexism will remain a mere dream. Let's not squander a chance to make sure the world evolves in a balanced manner, free of all gender bias.
Shelina Janmohamed is an author and a culture columnist for The National
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
500 People from Gaza enter France
115 Special programme for artists
25 Evacuation of injured and sick
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Dir: Taika Waititi
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Mark Ruffalo, Tessa Thompson
Four stars
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Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
Moonfall
Director: Rolan Emmerich
Stars: Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry
Rating: 3/5
The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
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Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Power: 480hp at 6,500rpm
Torque: 570Nm from 2,300-5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 10.4L/100km
Price: from Dh547,600
On sale: now
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Name: Tharb
Started: December 2016
Founder: Eisa Alsubousi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: Luxury leather goods
Initial investment: Dh150,000 from personal savings
Napoleon
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Date started: January 2017
Founder: Khaled Zaatarah
Based: Dubai and Los Angeles
Sector: Technology
Size: 21 employees
Funding: $7 million
Investors: Shorooq Partners, KBW Ventures, Vision Ventures, Hala Ventures, 500Startups, Plug and Play, Magnus Olsson, Samih Toukan, Jonathan Labin
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Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
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Family: He is the youngest of five brothers, of whom two are dentists.
Celebrities he worked on: Fabio Canavaro, Lojain Omran, RedOne, Saber Al Rabai.
Where he works: Liberty Dental Clinic
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Year of birth: 1988
Place of birth: Baghdad
Education: PhD student and co-researcher at Greifswald University, Germany
Hobbies: Ping Pong, swimming, reading
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Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
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Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
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