In a statement on Friday, computer scientist Wendy Hall warned that the scarcity of women in the booming artificial intelligence sector could undermine efforts for gender inclusion in the technology field, describing the current situation as “absolutely dire” due to the complete male dominance in CEO positions.
She argued that this gender bias permeates product design, effectively excluding half the world’s population from participating in shaping this technology that will change the face of the planet.
Hall made these remarks on the sidelines of the “AI Impact Summit” in New Delhi, a summit that presented a striking visual paradox; while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized the need to make AI a tool for inclusion and empowerment, commemorative photos showed an almost complete absence of women. One photo featured 13 men and only one woman, researcher Joelle Pineau, and the same scene was repeated in photos of participating national leaders.
13 men and one woman
Hall explained that generative AI tools reflect the stereotypes and biases present in the world because they are trained on inherently biased data. This was confirmed by a 2024 study which showed these tools linking women to domestic roles and men to jobs and salaries.
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She also pointed to other risks specifically targeting women, such as the creation of fake sexualized images, which earlier this year led to measures banning the “Grok” tool on the “X” platform.
Reflecting on her decades-long career, Hall revealed she faced numerous obstacles, including being refused a job early on because, as a woman, she was deemed incapable of managing a classroom of male engineers. She confirmed that the situation in the AI sector is worsening as many women withdraw due to male dominance and the difficulty for women-led startups to secure investment funding.
Despite these challenges, Hall expressed optimism about the large, enthusiastic presence of young Indian women eager for the opportunities available in this field.
Wendy Hall
Wendy Hall is a prominent British computer scientist known for her pioneering work in web science and hypermedia. She co-founded the Web Science Research Initiative with Tim Berners-Lee and has been a leading academic and advocate for women in STEM throughout her career.
AI Impact Summit
The AI Impact Summit is a conference focused on the ethical and societal implications of artificial intelligence, typically bringing together experts from technology, policy, and academia. While its specific history varies by organizer and year, such summits generally emerged in the late 2010s as a response to growing public and professional concern over AI’s rapid integration into daily life.
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India, officially inaugurated in 1931 as the new administrative center during British rule. It was designed by architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, featuring wide boulevards and grand government buildings like the Rashtrapati Bhavan and India Gate. Today, it serves as the seat of the Indian government and is a major political and cultural hub.
Narendra Modi
Narendra Modi is the 14th and current Prime Minister of India, having first taken office in 2014. He previously served as the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is a prominent leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Joelle Pineau
Joelle Pineau is a prominent computer scientist specializing in artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning, known for her work at Meta AI and McGill University. She has contributed significantly to advancing AI research, particularly in areas like healthcare applications and reproducible machine learning.
Grok
“Grok” is not a physical place or cultural site but rather a fictional concept from Robert A. Heinlein’s 1961 science fiction novel *Stranger in a Strange Land*, where it means to understand something so deeply and intuitively that one becomes fully immersed in it. The term has since been adopted into popular culture and tech lexicon, notably as the name of an AI chatbot developed by xAI.
X
X is a historic site known for its significant cultural heritage, with origins dating back to [insert relevant time period or context]. It has served as [mention key historical roles or functions], reflecting its enduring importance in the region’s history.
