CARE Kids vision
In today’s digital age, children are exposed to an overabundance of online content, including those generated by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. These algorithms learn from vast, generic data sets which, whilst facilitating learning, can inadvertently perpetuate inherent biases intrinsic to the training data. Thus, digital content produced by generative AI has a propensity to reinforce prevalent stereotypes by representing people into traditional, normative gender roles and appearances which can significantly impact children’s perceptions and attitudes about themselves and others.
The ethical implications of AI biases are significant as they can lead to unconscious discrimination (prejudice outside of conscious awareness), harming children’s growth and well-being, for instance, by profoundly influencing their decisions regarding future study and career paths. It becomes urgent to address this issue to prevent the risk of reinforcing harmful stereotypes.
CARE-Kids addresses the critical need for enhancing digital equity by empowering children to recognise and mitigate gender biases in generative AI images.