A virtual office experiment in Ireland suggests that a form of workplace bias may be carrying over into the age of artificial intelligence. Workers in the study paid a female-presenting AI assistant significantly less than a male-presenting one to complete the same office tasks.
Here's what to know
To gauge how much people valued AI labor, The Irish Times noted that researchers from the University of Limerick and other institutions asked 189 workers to complete office tasks with AI assistants inside a virtual reality workplace. They would then divide real money between themselves and the assistant.
Dr. Mary Hausfeld of UL's Kemmy Business School, a co-author on the study, said in a press release that the gap was clear. Participants awarded more money to the male-presenting agent, Johan, than to the female-presenting agent, Johanna, even though the two used the same technology. Johan was also viewed as more human-like.
"What is striking about our findings is that the technology behind these AI agents was exactly the same, but people did not treat them in the same way," she commented in the release.
Participants also reported no preference between AI assistants with female or male attributes, even though their behavior differed.
More background
Researchers said the experiment was one part of a wider look at how AI design shapes interactions at work. In addition to the difference between Johanna and Johan, they found that participants trusted human-like assistants more and gave them more credit for their work than a robot version driven by the same AI.
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Using real money in a simulated office exchange, the study tested whether gendered and human-like features in AI assistants can produce measurable differences in outcomes.
Hausfeld said the way these assistants are designed can lead people to apply the same assumptions they use in human interactions.
"We often think of AI as being neutral, but the way we design and present these systems can activate those same assumptions and biases that exist in our interactions with other people," she said.
What's being done?
The paper, "Human-Like and Male? How AI Assistant Design Relates to Trust and Monetary Reward at Work in VR," was scheduled for presentation at the 14th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction in Vaasa, Finland, from October 5 to 7 and for publication in the conference proceedings published by the Association for Computing Machinery.
Researchers noted that the study's findings indicate that AI certainly doesn't exist in a vacuum when it comes to how it presents itself. For that reason, designers should focus on more than the underlying tech when building out AI agents.
"As AI agents become more common in the workplace, we need to think carefully about the characteristics we give them and the behaviours those choices may encourage," Hausfeld noted in the release. "We don't want to inadvertently reproduce existing inequalities in a new technological setting."
Where can I learn more?
AI is reshaping office work and management decisions with side effects and growing warnings.
• Across workplaces, AI side effects are complicating assumptions about productivity, stress, and daily routines.
• Thousands of CEOs say AI is everywhere except the balance sheet, despite its rapid spread.
• In offices and call centers, jobs are under scrutiny as automation spreads.
• An investor warned that the terrifying impact AI will have on employment is approaching faster than expected.
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