AI Has Alarming Power to Spread Gender Bias. Here Are Four Ways to Combat It.

A woman is typing at her desk in an office. Companies should ensure that their AI applications do not have an adverse impact on any group of people. "Did you mean Stephen Williams?" In 2016, a Seattle Times article found that searching for a female contact on LinkedIn -- in this case, Stephanie Williams -- yielded a prompt that asked if you meant to search for a similar-sounding man's name, Stephen Williams. In 2018, Amazon had to shut down an AI recruiting tool designed to screen applicant resumes because it was discriminating against women.