Artificial intelligence can be sexist and racist just like humans

Many of us like to think that artificial intelligence could help eradicate biases, that algorithms could help humans avoid hiring or policing according to gender or race-related stereotypes. But a new study suggests that when computers acquire knowledge from text written by humans, they also replicate the same racial and gender prejudices--thus perpetuating them. Researchers at Princeton University and Britain's University of Bath found that machine learning "absorbs stereotyped biases" when trained on words from the internet. Their findings, published in the journal Science on Thursday, showed that machines learn word associations from written texts that mirror those learned by humans. "Don't think that AI is some fairy godmother," said study co-author Joanna Bryson.