UN Women has launched a new global Center for Digitalization, Innovation and Artificial Intelligence, aimed at placing gender equality at the heart of digital transformation. The agency warned that women remain largely excluded from designing the technologies reshaping work, public services and rights, as well as from the processes governing them.

 

The agency said the new platform will bring together researchers, governments, technology companies, AI experts and women’s rights organizations to help guide artificial intelligence and digital transformation in ways that benefit women and girls.

 

The center’s launch coincides with world leaders gathering in New York for the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, where artificial intelligence is expected to feature prominently in discussions on economic transformation, the future of work, development, wars, and international peace and security.

 

UN Women noted that women and girls, and the impact of technological transformations on their rights and empowerment, remain largely absent from these discussions.

 

According to the agency, men hold around eight out of every 10 jobs in the artificial intelligence sector, while they occupy nearly nine out of every 10 senior leadership positions that help shape the direction of the technology.

 

UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous said: “The AI systems we build today will shape the way we live and work tomorrow. If women are absent from their design and governance, we risk carrying today’s inequalities into the future.”

 

The agency added that women are already experiencing the consequences of AI systems that do not adequately reflect their realities.

 

According to a global analysis of 133 artificial intelligence systems, 44% of those systems showed gender bias.

 

The agency also reported that nearly one in four women human rights defenders, activists and journalists surveyed had experienced AI-enabled online violence.

 

The new center aims to produce evidence and data on the impact of emerging technologies on women and girls. It will also support member states in developing gender-responsive digital and artificial intelligence policies.

 

The center will also work with technology companies to incorporate gender equality principles into the design of technologies and their governance mechanisms.

 

UN Women said the center will strengthen the UN system’s capacity to address issues related to artificial intelligence and digital governance, while giving women and women’s rights organizations a stronger role in shaping policies, rules and technologies.

 

Sima Bahous said: “AI can deepen gender inequality or help overcome it. That is a human choice.”

 

She added that these choices are being made now by engineers, companies, investors and governments.

 

The agency stressed that achieving gender equality in artificial intelligence is not only about representation, but also about power and influence, as the technology is already reshaping economic, social and political systems.

 

The Center for Digitalization, Innovation and Artificial Intelligence is part of broader efforts by UN Women to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment amid rapid technological change.

 

The agency said the center’s work will contribute to international efforts to ensure that digital transformation and artificial intelligence support inclusive and sustainable development while respecting human rights.