The Default Gender in AI Assistant Technologies: Possible Impact on Women in Africa

Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant technologies such as digital voice assistants and chatbots have become increasingly ubiquitous and powerful in Africa. In a datafied society, AI assistant technologies learn a user’s history such as purchase preferences, home ownership, location, family size to answer complex questions, provide recommendations, make predictions, and even initiate conversations. In Africa, service providers such as banks, hospitals, insurance companies, are adopting the use of AI assistant technologies to meet their growing customer base. For example, many South African health insurance companies such as Discovery are using AI-powered chatbots which allow clients to access up-to-date information on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Such information includes scheduling annual checks such as pap smears, exercising regularly and purchasing healthy food. In Kenya, Jacaranda Health is a non-profit whose AI assistant technology improves maternal health by providing mothers with free, lifesaving advice and healthcare referral. Jacaranda Health chatbot is already being used by 120,000 pregnant women and new mothers across 200 hospitals in Kenya. Nigeria has a fintech start-up called Nomba that is tackling financial inclusion of women through a text messaging application. This AI chatbot helps users pay bills through a simple conversational manner and make financial transactions. This is owing to the fact that AI assistant technologies improve productivity and profit-making. Researchers and practitioners widely acknowledge the potential social and economic benefits of using AI assistant technologies, including increased efficiency, reduction of costs & human error, and enhanced customer experience...