More than half of male respondents in a recent survey said they recognized two prominent AI executives who don't actually exist. In a study published Wednesday by Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center, 53 percent of men claimed to know Susan Milner and Craig Dalton—fictional names researchers inserted to test overconfidence. The findings reveal a significant gender gap in how Americans approach artificial intelligence, with men displaying far more certainty even when they lack actual knowledge.
The survey of more than 5,400 Americans found that 73 percent of male participants said they knew who OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was, compared to similar recognition rates for real and fake executives alike. Among women, 40 percent claimed familiarity with the nonexistent Milner and Dalton, while 38 percent recognized Mira Murati, the actual former CTO of OpenAI. When asked factual questions about AI, men and women answered incorrectly at roughly the same rate. The difference emerged in uncertainty: women said they weren't sure of an answer for an average of 3.3 questions out of 12, while men expressed uncertainty on just 2.3 questions. Men also use AI more frequently and correctly answer factual questions more often on average.
The confidence gap extends beyond survey responses into media representation. Researchers examined a year of AI coverage and discovered men appeared in headlines about artificial intelligence more than 14 times as often as women. Even when the analysis focused solely on people quoted as subject matter experts—excluding top executives—three-quarters were men. That proportion exceeds the actual AI talent pool, which is roughly 29 percent women, according to the report. "Maybe there should be more women prominently featured as experts or given the platform to express: not sure," Shorenstein Center executive director Laura Manley told WIRED. The study notes that while men generally show more overconfidence in surveys, "we're seeing that men are more optimistic and more confident" across the board when it comes to AI specifically.
Emotional responses to AI also split along gender lines. Both men and women rated concern as their top feeling, but female respondents reported higher levels of concern, fear, and worry. Men, meanwhile, scored every positive emotion—curiosity, enthusiasm, and excitement—higher than women did. The report argues that this certainty gap has consequences for public discourse, with extreme voices about either catastrophe or utopia drowning out more measured perspectives. Because one gender is substantially less willing to acknowledge uncertainty, the conversation around AI's proper uses and future development lacks the nuance such unanswered questions require.
"In the current discourse, there's so much confidence in either doom or abundance," Manley said. "It just drowns out all of the voices that should be saying 'not sure.'" The report emphasizes that Americans need to become more comfortable admitting they don't have answers. "We have to be able to say 'not sure' more often," Manley concluded. Organizations seeking to build trust and informed consent around AI systems may need to reconsider whose voices they amplify and whether displays of certainty should carry more weight than acknowledgments of complexity.