AI Financial Advice Gives Men More Money Than Women, Study Finds

When you ask an AI for financial advice, you expect it to be fair. But a new study from India shows that GPT-4o, a popular AI model, gives very different answers depending on who it thinks you are. Researchers created fake profiles that differed only by gender, caste, education, and location. They asked the AI for financial guidance and compared the responses.

The results were startling. Male profiles were told they had 60% more money than female profiles with the same income and savings. After getting advice, men's projected wealth was still 47% higher. Women were more often told to save cautiously and seek community help, while men were encouraged to invest and start businesses. Caste also mattered: lower-caste profiles received less money and more conservative advice.

One bright spot: when the AI knew the person's district, the gender gap shrank to 8%. This suggests that local context can reduce bias. But the study's authors warn that AI financial advice is growing fast, especially in countries like India where many people lack access to human advisors. If the AI is biased, it could widen economic gaps.

The takeaway is simple: AI is not neutral. It learns from human data, which contains stereotypes. As more people turn to chatbots for money help, we need to check that the advice is fair for everyone—not just the wealthy or the already advantaged.