Study Reveals AI Fuels Gender Bias, Portraying Women as Younger, Less Experienced

A new study shows women are consistently depicted as younger and less experienced than men online and by AI, skewing perceptions of professional competence.

Researchers analyzed 1.4 million images and videos, along with nine large language models, and found women in high-level roles—CEOs, astronauts, doctors—were portrayed as significantly younger than reality, despite census data showing no age imbalance.

AI portrays women as younger, less experienced than men online.

The team also generated 40,000 AI-created CVs, discovering AI assumed women were less experienced, while older male applicants were rated more qualified.

Experiments showed that people who saw women in job-related images estimated lower average ages, whereas men in identical roles were judged older. Female-dominated roles triggered recommendations for younger hiring ages, while male-dominated roles skewed older.

“This age-related gender bias is a culture-wide distortion of reality, pervading online media and AI,” said Solene Delecourt of UC Berkeley. Stanford’s Douglas Guilbeault added that repeated exposure to these misrepresentations reinforces societal bias.

OpenAI responded, saying its research shows less than 1% of ChatGPT outputs reflect harmful stereotypes.