Female leaders in the AI generation face the tech industry’s well-known gender bias
The first time a venture capital fund assumed I was the executive assistant to my male co-founder, I laughed. The second time it happened, I responded with a terse clarification: “Actually, I’m the CEO.” The third time, I began to wonder why the tech industry as a whole didn’t seem to embrace the idea of a female leader in generative AI.
While it’s easy to scapegoat the so-called “pipeline problem” and argue that there simply aren’t enough women working their way through the labyrinth of academia and industry, the percentage of women pursuing careers in artificial intelligence is pretty much in line with general trends in STEM. In other words, women seem to be just as underrepresented in AI as they are in other STEM fields.
As the founder of an AI company, I meet and work with women every day who are leading AI/Machine Learning (ML) research labs, introducing generative AI tools into companies, and considering the ethical implications of this new technology. I can easily name women in key positions across the AI sector, such as Mira Murati of OpenAI and Fei-Fei Li of Stanford. Yet women are conspicuously absent from recent lists recognizing AI leaders. Women can be the flirtatious voice of your AI assistant, but not the metaphorical voice of the AI industry. So where is the discrepancy?
New industry, same voices
Generation A AI only entered the mainstream with the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. Since then, the pace of innovation has been unprecedented.
Given this uncertainty, there is a natural inclination to defer to anyone who claims to know the way forward—and that invariably means traditional tech CEOs with big megaphones. Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, Elon Musk, and others may not have college degrees or extensive experience in AI development, but they enjoy the credibility they gain from already leading respected tech companies. Even as new leaders have gained influence from the growing importance of generative AI—including Demis Hassabis of Google’s DeepMind and Dario Amodei of Anthropic—they have earned recognition through traditional resumes in academia and at Big Tech—the same job roles that have long been hostile and closed to women. With AI, the underlying technology may be new, but the gender power imbalance is not.
Frontend vs. Deep Tech
The AI hype has largely focused on research-oriented, science-heavy solutions like Large Language Models (LLMs). Organizations like OpenAI and Anthropic deliver models that process more data, sound more human, and can respond faster and more accurately. The AI hype cycle has followed these (male-led) companies with rapt attention.
Yet women are leading the way in the industries that must actually adopt and develop AI applications, including education, customer service, and human resources. These practical implementations have attracted significantly less attention. This disparity in recognition underscores a broader trend: While scientific breakthroughs attract significant attention, the real-world applications of these technologies often receive less respect. Female entrepreneurs like Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd and Canva’s Melanie Perkins have proven the immense value of user-facing technology applications, but are not celebrated as technical visionaries alongside male counterparts with STEM skills. Similar patterns are emerging in AI.
The “Bro Code” of the AI business
Regulation and legislation have not kept up with the pace of artificial intelligence. While there are endless ethical considerations in AI, the potential goldmine waiting for successful AI innovators has led to a Wild West-like atmosphere in the business practices of many of these new generation AI companies. This “ask for forgiveness, not permission” mentality is reminiscent of some of the most egregious “tech bro” stereotypes that have persisted in the industry for decades and continue to make AI as misogynistic a place as other areas of technology.
Fortunately, a new frontier also offers the opportunity to set new rules. We don’t have to conform to the old norms of power. The AI revolution gives us the opportunity to welcome a new set of leaders. To move the industry forward:
- Make room for new voices: In times of uncertainty, it is reassuring to turn to well-known leaders. In doing so, we miss this crucial window of opportunity in the early days of AI to nurture new experts.
- Focus on users, not just developers: You don’t need a PhD in ML to understand how 1st Gen AI can improve productivity, efficiency, and other aspects of work. Women represent many of the industries best suited for AI transformation and should play a leading role in shaping its impact.
- Don’t reward the “move fast and break things” approach (even Facebook stopped mentioning this as a core value years ago), and don’t let the rapid pace of AI innovation create a new kind of “tech bro.”
We are in the early days of technology history. Let’s not miss this opportunity to create new leaders and influencers across gender lines. And at least don’t assume that the female CEO is the executive assistant.
Read more:
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com’s commentaries reflect solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Assets.
