SoFi says when it comes to the idea of women achieving financial success, artificial intelligence has the wrong idea.
To fix that, the California-based digital personal finance company is launching a new campaign that involves education, equal representation and free tickets to catch one of the world’s biggest pop stars live in concert.
On Thursday, SoFi announced “Face of Finance,” a new effort created to challenge the bias of AI against women and money. According to the company, when asking for AI tools to generate realistic images of people who are good with money, only 2% of the thousands of images depicted women.
Buit according to SoFi, data shows that is far from an accurate portrayal. A McKinsey & Co. study finds that women control at least $10 trillion in assets, and that number is projected to rise within the next three to five years.
Meanwhile, a 2021 Fidelity analysis finds that women’s rate of return on investments has been found to be higher than their male counterparts, and Experian reports that men carry more credit card, personal loan and auto loan debt than women.
SoFi leaders say AI is powered by data, and that data reflects the gender bias society sees with respect to women and personal finances. For SoFi Chief Marketing Officer Lauren Stafford Webb, the time to change that narrative is now.
“At SoFi, we’re on a mission to help our members achieve financial independence to realize their ambitions — and that means all members,” she said. “90% of women manage financial decisions for their households, and women’s portfolios are known to outperform their male counterparts.”
As part of the campaign, SoFi wants to retrain AI in regards to women in finance. The organization will capture imagery of real women excelling in the financial space, as well as amplify the profiles of female financial experts in an effort to begin to retrain AI.
To support their effort, SoFi launched two pop-up photo booth experiences at Brookfield Place in New York City on Thursday and Friday. Individuals who identify as women were given the opportunity to take pictures via the photo booth that will be returned into an AI model to drive more equal representation of women participating in personal finance activities.
Participants who shared their shots online using the hashtag #SoFiSweeps were also given the chance to win a pair of tickets to a Taylor Swift Concert at SoFi Stadium.
As part of their “Face of Finance” commitments, SoFi is also making a pledge to feature equal gender representation in current imagery and content creation; and invest in educational resources to provide all members access to financial literacy education.
To learn more about the “Face of Finance” campaign visit SoFi.com/change.
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