A journey towards equality. Decoding gender-bias in AI

Dutch digital creative network Ace created the amazing and impactful MissJourney AI tool - together with and for TEDxAmsterdam Women. MissJourney marks the start of the year-long TEDxAmsterdam Women theme: Decoding the Future. Disrupting codes that society has used and agreed to for so long. Uncovering ways to change them, break them and build equality despite them. The objective of TEDxAmsterdam Women is to raise awareness, and spark conversation on topics that contribute to decoding inequality.

Background

AI image generators are currently still quite biased. When asked to imagine professions or character descriptions, less than 20% of the images shown are women. To make sure AI image generators produce inclusive imagery, it needs to be built and trained that way. The solution is in the hands of developers. Therefore, Ace's core objective was to raise awareness for (gender) bias within AI.

This is because the data used to train these AI systems can contain biases. And, if the training data is biased, harmful stereotypes can continue to exist. Leading to under-representation and discrimination. This can have a significant impact on individuals, society and overall equality.

MissJourney's goal is to challenge AI generators to incorporate every gender, so that nobody feels left out. Unlike other AI generators that generally only give a male identity.

What Ace did

With MissJourney, Ace translated an abstract issue into tangible action that spread across the globe. 

It is the first women-led AI tool. It is user-friendly - with a code-less interface that is easy to use for all - regardless of your technical background. It is also free to use - with no account needed. A smooth experience: the fast rendering of artworks makes the process seamless and efficient. Accessible to all.

To generate a great AI picture, a clear prompt is essential. In MissJourney all portraits feature women, because every profession should be open to everyone, including women. 

To create a prompt, a visitor starts by identifying the role or profession they want to see in the image, followed by any specific style, location or colour. The tool then creates a series of portraits, and encourages people to share their search results with their social network to spark conversation. 

Behind the scenes - acquiring insights through diversity

Ace worked with a diverse team: individuals from different age groups, disciplines, genders and cultural backgrounds. This is needed to create diverse and inclusive technology. 

Also, the agency was conscious in selecting and creating the database of images. Aiming to generate artworks that were as inclusive as possible -  based on gender, cultural background, age, body type and skin colour.

Ace carefully trained and fine-tuned the algorithm to produce high-quality results that are equally representative of different professions, characteristics, ethnicities, ages and body type. Therefore, the output will always be diverse - based on the requested prompt. Unless users intentionally request a specific ethnicity or certain characteristics. 

Results

Within two weeks of launching on International Women's Day, people from 147 countries visited Missjourney.ai. Resulting in over 163,000 unique image creations. Despite having no media budget, MissJourney had a global reach of over 103 million and was covered by national and international TV, radio, podcasts and other media . Urging everyone to join the movement.

TEDxWomen's brand sentiment has increased by 80%, and they have kicked off a year-long programme that supports women in tech, including talks, workshops, mentorship courses and panels around the theme 'Decoding the Future'.

The future

AI has the potential to play a significant role in shaping the future for everyone, including womankind. It has the power to contribute to gender equality. For example, by helping to identify and address gender biases in various domains. By eliminating biases in algorithms and decision-making systems, AI can contribute to creating a more equal and inclusive society.

However, it is important to note that the impact of AI on the future of womankind will depend on how these technologies are developed, implemented and regulated. Otherwise we will face the risk of reinforcing traditional gender bias, stereotypes and discrimination. Ensuring diversity and inclusion in AI development and deployment will be crucial to harnessing its full potential for the benefit of all genders and cultural backgrounds.

MissJourney – the name says it all - is a journey, and is only the start. MissJourney deliberately generates AI imagery featuring only women, but true diversity goes beyond gender. Ace's aim is to inspire developers and creators to build technology that is fundamentally inclusive, and enables users to generate imagery that is representative of society as a whole. In short, MissJourney is not the end goal, but a campaign to shake things up.

Recognition & awards

• FWA site of the day

• Awwwards site of the day

• CSS site of the day

• WD awards web design of the day

• WD awards website of the month

• DIA (Dutch Interactive awards) finalist