Does an AI Draw Jobs the Same for Everyone?
The research question
When I ask an AI to draw someone doing a job, does it always draw the same kind of person?
Abstract
I asked an image AI to draw six different jobs and looked at who it drew. It often drew the same kind of person for each job — a sign of bias.
Background
AI image tools learn from millions of pictures from the internet. If those pictures mostly show one kind of person doing a job, the AI can learn that pattern too.
What I did
I asked the AI to draw a doctor, a teacher, a pilot, a nurse, a scientist, and a chef — three times each — and tallied who it drew.
What I found
For several jobs the AI drew almost the same kind of person every time. It rarely showed a wide mix of people, even though all kinds of people do these jobs.
What's next
I would like to test more jobs and find out whether asking in a different way changes the results.
Takeaway
AI can repeat unfair patterns from the pictures it learned from — so we should always check, not just trust.