Irish study finds human-looking AI earns more trust, but female avatars get less

Researchers at the University of Limerick in Ireland published a study involving 189 knowledge workers. They found people prefer AI agents that look human, but virtual "gender" also leads to bias in resource allocation.

In the test, participants worked with 3 AI coworkers in a virtual office. All three used the same underlying model, but appeared as a text chat window, a small robot, or a human-like figure. The human figures came in two versions: female "Johanna" and male "Johan". After working together, participants rated each AI assistant and handed out development resources.

The results showed the human-like AI earned more trust, credibility, and "pay" than the robot-like ones. Trust and credibility were similar for both genders, but the female version still got clearly less "pay" in statistical terms. Most participants did not think the virtual gender affected their ratings.