Why Women Avoid AI

Google wants Gemini in your home. I don’t mind.

But the women I’ve asked do.

In the three years since GPT’s launch, I’ve grown to appreciate the tech. I welcomed it into my work days. If I didn’t use it, my colleague would. They’d get praised for efficiency, and I’d cope with unnecessary stress. I got so used to using it. And seeing it reflected in the projects of my male colleagues. I didn’t realize something.

The women in my department avoided chatbots. It’s not only in my department. Or even my workplace. The phenomenon is global. So much. Harvard Business School article asks if avoidance will cause women’s careers to suffer.

I went back to X and LinkedIn.

I looked at all the well-followed praisers of AI.

Most are men.

So many, you’d almost get the impression 98% are men. While women measure and find AI apps inferior to their abilities. Lots of guys aren’t overthinking, doubting, or doing overcomparative analysis. Most importantly, these men are lucky. Their bosses may also be other men with broken moral compasses and a love for productivity.

It’s also not because women make up 29% of the AI workforce. Even if given training or opportunities to use LLMs and AI software, the gender usage gap remains. No, it’s not a lack of technology interest either. Women have embraced devices and social media.

So it has got to be more than this, right?

Why Women Avoid AI?

• Women perceive AI as unethical.
• Feels irrelevant due to the lack of women in AI leadership roles.
• Women are already judged harder than their male counterparts in the workplace. So, many think its use will erode their professional credibility. Earning them the label of lazy or dishonest, making it even harder to get promotions.
• Deloitte reports 22% of women are less likely to feel encouraged by their employers to use AI. As they receive fewer GenAI training opportunities.
• Generative text and images highly reinforce gender biased narratives. Associating women with home care, secretary and nurse jobs, and men with leadership career roles.
• Mistrust, as most AI voice assistants use a default woman’s voice. Seen as another stereotypical gender projection.
• Ageism, negative body stereotypes, and sexualization of generated women characters.
• 96% of deepfakes are nonconsensual, sexualized content mostly featuring women. More women concerned about their digital safety as AI-nudify tools increase.
• AI companions further the gender divide by encouraging men to view women as responsible for the home, kids, and their emotions. Men are twice as likely to entertain the idea of an AI partner. Yet, less than half of these men would consider an AI self-driving car or a robot-conducted surgery.
• AI hiring tools widen hiring and financial gaps. In 2018, Amazon scrapped a secret AI recruitment tool. It preferred male resumes. In 2019, Apple’s credit card faced investigations. Credit limits were different for men and women despite similar financial profiles. Concerns loom for credit scores and mortgage lending as AI grows mainstream in banks.
• Women think its risk eclipses the rewards. They worry AI data misuse or leaks will be more dangerous than they can handle. Especially in America, where control over personal information feels less secure.
• Research favors male symptoms, illnesses, and participants. So, women believe health chatbots will misdiagnose due to historical medical information. Women believe they gain better outcomes by seeking second opinions and face-to-face consults.
• Women in abusive relationships avoid smart home tech. For fear of tech-enabled 24/7 surveillance.
• Users are more hostile towards women AI app creators. Women comprise most of the writer economy. Predisposing them to being aware of AI scraping and plagiarism. And wanting to protect themselves and clients from intellectual property theft claims. AI detectors also have a bias for non-native English writers.

Until developers and engineers address the concerns, women will continue to avoid AI apps and LLMs. Women already deal with internal struggles, like self-doubt. Plus, external judgment and societal expectations.

It would be a lot to cope with more strangers and antagonistic colleagues using their use of AI to criticize them. Or worse, risk their reputation for speedy task completion. Such AI prevalence may grow while women’s usage remains low across different countries, industries, occupations, and lifestyles.