Disney to ‘Spellcheck’ Scripts for Gender-Bias Using AI Technology

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Lucasfilm/Bad Robot/Walt Disney Pictures

The Walt Disney Company will use a new artificial intelligence application to “spellcheck” scripts for gender bias in a new partnership with actress Geena Davis.

The collaboration, which was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, will involve a new AI tool called “GD-IQ: Spellcheck for Bias,” which was developed at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering.

GD-IQ is intended to analyze the text of a script to determine the balance of male and female characters and whether the mix is representative of reality, according to the trade publication.

The tool also can discern the numbers of characters based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other groups.

Davis made the announcement at a recent gender inclusion summit in Auckland, New Zealand.

“I’m very proud to announce we have a brand new partnership with Walt Disney Studios using Spell Check for Bias,” Davis reportedly said onstage.

“They are our pilot partners and we’re going to collaborate with Disney over the next year using this tool to help their decision-making, identify opportunities to increase diversity and inclusion in the manuscripts that they receive. We’re very excited about the possibilities with this new technology and we encourage everybody to get in touch with us and give it a try.”

The Thelma & Louise star runs the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, a group she founded in 2004 to advocate for gender representation in Hollywood.

“There’s one category of gross gender inequality where the underrepresentation of women can be fixed absolutely overnight — and it’s onscreen,” Davis said at the New Zealand event. “The very next project somebody makes — the next movie, TV show — can be gender-balanced. We can make this change happen very fast. In the time it takes to create a new show or a new film, we can present a whole new vision of the future.”

Davis reportedly said that the goal of the new application is not to “shame and blame,” but instead to reveal unconscious bias.

Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com

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