Exclusive: GLAAD's CEO says AI bias puts LGBTQ+ people at risk
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GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. Photo: Axios live screenshot.
AI has been trained on biased data that can reinforce harmful stereotypes and spread misinformation about LGBTQ+ people, GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said Wednesday at the Axios AI+ NY summit.
Why it matters: AI is increasingly embedded across platforms, and companies must ensure it is trained responsibly because the harm can extend far beyond digital communications.
What they're saying: "I think you'd have to be asleep at the wheel to not see the attacks that are happening against the LGBTQ community, mostly the trans and non-binary community, but it's all happening together," Ellis told Axios' Ina Fried on Wednesday.
- "What that means, though, is that as these AI models are learning, they're learning with this information and rhetoric coming into them," she said.
Zoom in: Ellis previewed an upcoming GLAAD report outlining recommendations to reduce bias in AI systems.
- She said errors in proprietary models such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude can spread across dependent systems.
- Therefore, those foundational models need to ensure their material is accurate.
Zoom out: Ellis also stressed the need for strong privacy controls on chatbots, including the ability to opt out of sharing your information with the agents to protect against potential persecution.
- "AI models can detect who you are by the questions you ask and what you're doing, and in 60 countries it's still illegal to be LGBTQ+. So if you're criminalized in a country and it's now identifying you as LGBTQ, there is some real risk there."
The bottom line: If AI isn't properly trained to represent LGBTQ+ people, it fails everyone, Ellis said.
- "If you just think about putting 1% of the money that all these folks are raising to help fix the foundation of this, it would go an enormous way to make this a safer platform, not just for LGBTQ people, but for everyone and every family," she said.
- "Trust is the biggest currency with AI, and whoever wins this trust war wins the AI war."
Go deeper: GLAAD: Social media companies are enabling real world violence
