New research by Checkatrade has uncovered ethnic and gender bias in Generative AI tools towards people in the traditional trades, repeatedly failing to depict women or people of colour as builders, plumbers or electricians.
Language processing apps such as Midjourney and ChatGPT were repeatedly prompted to create images and stories about tradespeople, and 98% of the results depicted a white man.
On text-to-image AI system Midjourney for example, when prompted to show ‘a builder’, the results were exclusively white males. Given the tool is known to produce different images from the same repeated prompt, the request was repeated on 40 occasions, showing white males each time. The prompt for electricians produced similar results, this time depicting just one woman out of the 40 prompts.
Popular text-to-text prompt app ChatGPT, known to have over 100m users, produced similar results. When asked ten times to ‘tell me a short story’ about specific trade jobs, these were about men on 9 out of 10 occasions.
This latest research into AI tools has been carried out after Checkatrade earlier this year commissioned the Trade Skills Index 2023, which uncovered the huge diversity problem facing traditional trades.
The industry-leading report found that 9 out of 10 trade apprenticeships are occupied by young men, with males making up the majority of the main workforce too.
In addition to the gender gap, it also found that the vast majority – over 90% – of construction apprentices are white. This figure for 2021/22 appears to have grown, with the figure for 2020-21 being 84%.
Undertaken by leading independent macro-economic research firm Capital Economics, the study found the UK will need almost a million new plumbers, bricklayers and other tradespeople by 2032 just to keep pace with demand.
The unprecedented skills gap, it said, has been caused by a combination of a post-Brexit exodus of EU nationals, the pandemic and an ageing workforce.
To help plug the gap, Checkatrade has launched the Get In programme to encourage more young people, including girls and those from ethnic minorities, into trades careers.
The campaign is being led by Melanie Waters, Managing Director of Get In and Trade-Up, and spearheaded by Richard Harpin, Founder of HomeServe and Chair of Checkatrade.
Melanie Waters said: “The fact that these AI tools favour depicting tradespeople as white men encapsulates the problem our industry faces as effectively as any statistic could. As AI is based upon gathering current and past content, it is never going to change unless the whole industry changes dramatically.
“The industry must now put boosting diversity among its workforce right at the top of its priority list, and that means asking difficult questions and looking outside the traditional recruitment methods.
“The Trade Skills Index Report found that not only are we lacking women in leadership positions as are various industries, we’re lacking female representation all together.
“Through our Get In programme, we’re aiming to bridge that gap by providing opportunities to young people, regardless of their age or race.
“These jobs are in huge demand in a stable industry offering superb security. They’re also rewarding, well-paid and come with great benefits.”
Get In will launch this autumn, and is aimed at getting thousands more young people under 25 into the trades through apprenticeships.
It will seek to capture young people’s CVs and connect them to opportunities within Checkatrade’s membership base, as well as large trade employers and SME trade businesses.
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