Yet a growing body of research shows that these technologies are rife with bias and discrimination, mirroring and amplifying real-world inequalities. A study scheduled to be released Wednesday by New York University’s AI Now Institute identifies a key reason why: The people building these technologies are overwhelmingly white and male.

Artificial intelligence technologies are developed mostly in major tech companies such as Facebook, Google, Amazon and Microsoft, and in a small number of university labs, which all tilt white, affluent and male and, in many cases, are only getting more so. Only by adding more women, people of color and other underrepresented groups can artificial intelligence address the bias and create more equitable systems, says Meredith Whittaker, a report author and co-founder of the AI Now Institute.

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