Is it more important to teach AI how the world works--or how we would like it to be?

The presidential campaign made clear that chauvinist attitudes toward women remain stubbornly fixed in some parts of society. It turns out we're inadvertently teaching artificial-intelligence systems to be sexist, too. New research shows that subtle gender bias is entrenched in the data sets used to teach language skills to AI programs. As these systems become more capable and widespread, their sexist point of view could have negative consequences--in job searches, for instance. The problem results from the way machines are being taught to read and talk.