Author: Sabine

Biased Artificial Intelligence

Posted on by Sabine

Asked whether it is biased, ChatGPT, an AI (Artificial Intelligence) tool, responded on April 8, 2024: “Like many AI models, ChatGPT can be susceptible to biases. Bias can arise in various ways, such as how the training data was collected, or the inherent biases present in the texts used to train the model.”

Bias in AI tools can be explained by the data used to develop these machines. This data is often not representative and is based on the opinions and attitudes of majority groups. For example, in 2022, the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) reported a share of 18.9% of female IT specialists across Europe. Consequently, stereotypical views towards certain genders, ethnicities, or social groups are often present in the training data, leading AI models to reproduce and reinforce these biases in their widespread applications.

The data used to train tools like ChatGPT primarily come from internet sources such as Wikipedia, an encyclopedia that has historically shown a significantly lower participation of women compared to men since its inception. In 2018, there was a notable gender imbalance in terms of who contributes to Wikipedia, with the Community Insights Report indicating 90% male contributors, 9% female contributors, and 1% other individuals.

While this is not new information, avoiding these biases presents a complex challenge.

Various measures can be taken to address bias in AI, such as diversifying and making datasets more representative during development, identifying biases early in this phase, adjusting algorithms post-development, or ensuring diverse composition of development teams. Additionally, particularly when the goal is to empower the general population, it is important to reflect on these developments. By increasing transparency and explainability in AI systems, users can better understand how decisions are made and identify potential biases. It is crucial to keep this in mind and critically evaluate information provided, consulting alternative sources if necessary. That something is already happening is demonstrated by the friendly prompt from ChatGPT: “If you notice any potential biases in my responses, please feel free to point them out, and I’ll do my best to address them.”

 

New Standards in Education

Posted on by Sabine

The official kick-off event for the project “StAct – Start and Act”, which focuses on social and inclusive entrepreneurship in the digital world, took place in the end of October at the Vienna University of Teacher Education.
The traditional promotion of entrepreneurship is often based on a rigid, curricular approach that neglects the individual development of learners. Important aspects such as the impact of digital changes in the world of work and the implementation of the sustainability goals of the UN Agenda 2030 are often overlooked. In addition, gender- and diversity-specific career perceptions continue to play a significant role. “StAct – Start and Act” addresses  these challenges and enables students to become shapers of their future. This is done by identifying relevant topics, developing questions and working on generative research processes within the framework of a research cycle. Previous (international) projects have shown that this approach is extremely motivating and competence-enhancing. The cycle comprises the phases 1) dialogues (topic identification and development of research questions), 2) research (exploration and research projects) and 3) presentation (analysis and reflection), with the students at the center and actively driven.
So-called “Living Libraries” frame these phases. At the kick-off event, students and educators had the opportunity to meet and interview “Living Books” (representatives of startups and organizations). They also received inputs about the Digital Playground of the Otelo Futurespace and familiarized themselves with the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Agenda 2030. In addition, those involved in the project were able to make valuable contacts and build networks. At the final event, the students will then take on the role of “Living Books” to present their research findings and share their ideas for social and inclusive entrepreneurship in the digital world with relevant stakeholders from education, family, community and politics.
The project shows how children and young people from HTL Spengergasse, Mittelschule Geblergasse, Mittelschule Quellenstraße, Volksschule Hahngasse and Volksschule Seestadt – which are from primary level through lower secondary general education to upper secondary vocational education – can shape their future while addressing important societal challenges such as sustainability and diversity.

StAct is funded by the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK) within the framework of the FFG call “Talente Regional 2022”.

 

Yes to Gender Equality

Posted on by Sabine

Across all sectors (business, public, university and NGO sectors), women researchers account for 32.9% of the workforce in Europe, while in Austria it is 30.4%. Women are least represented in the business sector with 21.3% across the EU and 17.7% in Austria. The European Commission (EC) is now responding by requiring Horizon Europe applicants to develop a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) in order to apply for funding.

A GEP aims to promote gender equality through institutional cultural change. It is public organizations that face this task since 2022. Five content areas that can serve as guidance for companies are proposed by the EC for the GEP: these relate to taking action in work-life balance and organizational culture, gender balance in leadership and decision-making, and in recruiting and career progression. Likewise, measures are recommended to integrate the gender dimension into research and teaching, just as steps are to be taken to prevent gender-based violence and sexual harassment.

However, there are also elements of the GEP that are specified in order to secure it structurally in the organization. There must be sufficient resources (financial, human) for implementation, there must be ongoing monitoring of the indicators developed and combined with annual reports, and staff and decision-makers must receive training on equality and gender bias. Finally, the GEP must be signed by the management and must be published on the organization’s website.
In participatory processes MOVES supports organizations in developing an equality plan. Learn more.

Gender Bias and Stereotypes

Posted on by Sabine

Stereotypes provide structure; they are basically helpful in finding one’s way in the world by reducing uncertainties and providing orientation. They are unconscious, simplifying ideas that determine a person’s perceptions and thus help to make a quick assessment of a specific situation. As important as they are in a complex world, stereotypes harbor the danger of attributing certain characteristics to persons and groups, which are associated with dominant social evaluations and thus represent and at the same time solidify hierarchies and power relations.

The gender stereotypes “Men are interested in technology, not very communicative, not very empathic, mathematically gifted, determined, decisive, …” stand in difference to “Women are not interested in technology, communicative, empathic, mathematically not gifted, team-oriented, social …”. Completely disregarded in these discussions are people who, in their diversity, do not at all fit into such dichotomies. Although current research presents and contradicts explanations, these “naturally given” simplifications with all their individual professional, social and economic consequences are very persistent and widespread.

This brings us to the gender bias, which causes systematic bias effects in action by taking up these gender stereotypes. It is about an unconscious influencing of perception and decisions by such dichotomous, positive or negative evaluations of a person. In the professional context, for example, this is about how resumes are evaluated, how decisions are made about acceptance into a company, how decisions are made about career development, or how salary increases are argued. The gender pay gap in Austria in 2020 is 18.9% (calculated on the basis of gross earnings of men and women), which is far from the average of 13% in the EU countries. The adjusted gender pay gap (taking into account part-time work, industry, level of education or work experience) is still 12.7% in Austria, as shown by Statistics Austria data from 2020.

Learn more in our workshops

Intersectionality on the way

Posted on by Sabine

If in the 1970s and 1980s it was the theories of equality and the theories of difference, later the (de)construction has prevailed, which in turn is a basis for the currently strongly spreading theories of intersectionality .

Intersectionality is a concept that emerged in the late 1980s in the United States, the name Kimberlé Crenshaw is inseparable from its genesis. It was Black feminists who criticized their white counterparts for presuming to speak for them, because their contexts are markedly different from those of white women. They are affected not only by gender discrimination, but also by the ethnic discrimination that can be pinned on skin color: sexism meets racism. Intersectionality theories assume that structuring categories such as gender or ethnicity cannot be viewed in isolation from each other, but must be analyzed in their interconnectedness.

Stereotypical notions of men* and women* regarding their attitudes, behaviors, interests, or competencies, and the associated hierarchizations and social power aspects, thus interact with equally largely unquestioned notions about other diversity factors. Sexism and racism thus also meet social status, religion, education, sexual orientation, disability, or age. Kimberlé Crenshaw offers the metaphor of an “intersection” for this, in the middle of which marginalized groups can be thought of as encountering discriminations (accidents) from multiple or all directions of the roads simultaneously. Forms of discrimination of gender and age paired with religion, for example, cannot be thought of separately in this context, but influence each other, potentiate each other, and this also means that new forms of discrimination can thus emerge.

This all seems very logical, but at the same time difficult to grasp. When and where do such forms of discrimination associated with power differentials and hierarchies occur? What do these multiple discriminations mean for those affected? How can they be dealt with? In any case, these questions represent a broad field of action for intersectionality-oriented research.

 

An inclusive education model

Posted on by Sabine

The goal was to enable students, through a self-directed process that includes an (online) dialogue, research and analysis and presentation phase, to select, freely explore and research topics in the context of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Agenda 2030 and finally present their findings to the public and stakeholders. The CEPNET project developed a model for elementary schools that connects the levels of on-site and digital education in an innovative way.

In the evaluation of the project, CEPNET was shown to offer the opportunity to rethink school – to put students first in their diversity and to focus on their interests. Students were empowered, increased their cognitive and emotional skills, and broadened their attitudes. The children worked on a wide variety of UN SDGs, but it could have been any other topic, such as a focus on children’s rights, entrepreneurship, citizen science, or digitization. The topics are not in the foreground – the focus is on the structural anchoring of the model to empower children in school. For the educators, this model means that they take a back seat and change their classic function of imparting knowledge in favor of a role as coach for the children.

This requires trust in the children and has proven successful in CEPNET: The students have enjoyed conducting their research and the high number of educators who will integrate the model into their regular teaching practice demonstrates its didactic benefits. In this way, CEPNET is spreading its circles into families, as evidenced by one parent’s high regard for the students’ research findings: “An amaing day where you could clearly see the hard work and efforts of both the adults and the children.z” Moreover, CEPNET did not stop at the school or family level, but extends to communities and also to the government level.

 

© 2022 by MOVES