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Bias Perceptions of Generative AI: A Comparison of Public Sentiment on Twitter and Workplace Perspectives
Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) is one of the most
significant technological inventions in the last decade.It enhances content generation
across various domains, from personal messages to work-related tasks, encompassing
text, images, and videos. However, there have also been several debates surrounding
its inadvertent risks for bias and perpetuating stereotypes (Ferrara, 2023; Xavier 2024)
both from gender and racial perspectives (Nicoletti & Bass, 2023; Zhou, 2024;
Sadeghiani, 2024).Today, Gen AI is also being used in the workplace, with many
organisations adopting custom-built Gen AI tools as part of their working tools and
systems. Consequently, the objective of this research was tofind out if employees
perceive work-related outputs of Gen AI to be biased against women, people of colour
or neurodiverse people, and how this perception compares to that of the public, who
use Gen AI tools for both work and non-work-related purposes. A mixed-methods
approach was employed in this research. From workplace perspectives, quantitative
data were collected using a structured questionnaire from UK employees. From the
public perspective, qualitative data were collected through text mining using specific
keywords from Tweets on X platform. Findings showed that, while workplace
respondents reported modest levels of perceived bias across all groups, public
sentiment analysis and themes showed significant mistrust and negative perception of
bias in generative AI outputs for women and people of colour. There was however
positive perception as it relates to Neurodiverse people, with the public data showing
positive sentiments for Gen AI outputs as it relates to Neurodiverse people, as the users
view it as a tool for helping dyslexic users communicate better.