Female AI agents would get paid 10% less than male ones, study finds
Humans tend to trust and would pay male-presenting AI agents more than female ones for the same work, according to a new study by the University of Limerick on how humans interact with agents in the workplace.
A recent study examining how people interact with AI agents in the workplace reveals that those with a female appearance receive 10% less pay than their male-presenting counterparts for the same tasks. This discovery comes as AI agents become more prevalent, with 79% of companies currently using them and 40% more planning to do so.
The research, conducted by the University of Limerick, involved 189 human workers in a virtual office setting tasked with completing workplace duties alongside four AI assistants. These included a text-based chatbot, a desk robot, and two human-like agents named Johan and Johanna, both possessing identical capabilities and using the same underlying model, OpenAI’s gpt-4-1106-preview.
Despite both agents having comparable performance, participants paid Johanna significantly less (10%) than Johan, despite receiving similar ratings for their work. Researchers noted that participants viewed Johanna as less human-like than Johan. However, it was discovered that participants trusted and credited Johanna more than the other AI agents, particularly women.
The study also highlighted that people generally prefer AI agents that are either human-presenting or clearly non-human presenting, rejecting the robot design that was deemed to be "in between".
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