Female-founded AI startups in the UK account for just 2% of funding deals over the past decade, according to a report by the Alan Turing Institute.
When female-founded companies do secure funding, they raise an average of £1.3m per deal, compared to £8.6m raised by all-male founder teams.
The report highlights the urgent need for gender balance in AI investment, as the industry is predicted to grow significantly in the coming years.
Recommendations to improve gender balance include improving recruitment, monitoring investment practices, and diversifying the ecosystem.
There is an increasing demand for generative AI products, with leading tech companies investing heavily.
Gender diversity gaps and uneven progress rates for ethnic and racial groups are observed across investment firms.
AI products have shown biases, such as passport checkers working less efficiently with darker skin and tools reinforcing gender stereotypes.
In 2019, a UN agency found that assigning female genders to digital assistants like Siri and Alexa perpetuated harmful gender biases.
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