Who is an Entrepreneur? What AI Image Generators Think and Why They're Wrong

A few months ago, I was at the American Society on Aging conference, sitting in on a kickoff panel presentation on Ageism in AI, facilitated by the fabulous Julia Burrowes . Two of the speakers demonstrated dramatically how AI images reflect and reinforce societal biases, feeding a series of prompts to create images in front of the audience on a large screen that resulted in stereotypical depictions of older adults.

When I gave them the prompt of "older adults at work," the resulting image was of four women with white hair and pink and beige outfits, sitting around a round table, apparently scrapbooking.

You can't make this stuff up!

I decided to replicate the experiment this week, giving several AI image generators the prompt:

Create an image of an entrepreneur in a coffee shop.

What you see in the article cover image above is the result. And I want to know is:

• Who are these guys?
• Who is missing, and why?
• What are we missing, and missing out on when we ignore large segments of the populations that are driving entrepreneurship?

As a longtime social entrepreneur, I know the extent to which women, people of color and older adults are a vital part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. I only need to look at my own friends and colleagues:

• I think of business coach Kami Guildner , herself an encore entrepreneur, and through whom I've met many women entrepreneurs who are building businesses that combine mission and money, including Reagan Freed , Shelly Schell CDFA , Anna Brambilla , Dana Kirchmar , Jill Keuth , Jennifer Askey, PhD, PCC , Neeli Clute and Lauren K. Fisher .
• I think of Viveka von Rosen , a longtime entrepreneur who has just started a new venture helping executive women start legacy businesses.
• I think of Barbara Brooks 🎙 who has built a business bringing women looking for their second—and third—acts together in community.
• I think of Mary J Cronin , an established entrepreneur and professor of entrepreneurship who has written an excellent book on encore entrepreneurship, Starting Up Smarter: Why Founders Over 50 Build Better Companies.
• I think of Diana Place and all the wonderful women entrepreneurs I shared the stage with at her Quest 2024 Summit in May: Jacqueline (Jack) Perez , Maria Olsen and Melissa Davey (and the hall was filled with other women entrepreneurs age 50+ as well).
• I think of Angelle Fouther , who made the leap to entrepreneurship with her daughter Daryn Fouther after a highly successful career in communications for nonprofit organizations and foundations.
• I think of Elizabeth White , launching NUUage Coliving as she neared 70.
• I think of Jan Golden , a Next Avenue advocate for aging, pivoting from a career in tech and website design to establish Age-Friendly Vibes .
• I think of my Canadian friends, Helen Hirsh Spence , founder of Canada's Top Sixty Over Sixty (T60) and Wendy Mayhew , author of WISER: The Definitive Guide to Starting a Business After the Age of 50.
• I think of Joyce Feustel , who in her 60s started her business training others how to optimize their LinkedIn profiles (talking about changing the narrative about older adults and tech!)
• I think of Kathi McCarty , who turned her own lived experience of dealing with the fallout of meth toxins into a business educating others how to prevent it, with associated products.
• I think of my college friend Claudia Denelle , who when ageism got in the way of her longtime career in marcom, pivoted to her love of cooking, starting both a catering company and a storefront for Cooking with Claudia.
• I think of some of the people I've met in the #AgeTech space, many of them women and older adults.
• I think of the men and women I've met through The Encore Network , especially its Encore Entrepreneurship affinity group, who are all pursuing encore ventures, utilizing the strengths, experience, industry knowledge and connections they have built up over time to launch successful new ventures.

And so many others.

The data demonstrate that these are not outliers:

• The National Association of Women Business Owners estimates there are over 12 million women-owned businesses in the U.S., accounting for about 40% of all businesses in the country.
• From 2019 to 2023, the number of new women-owned businesses grew at nearly double the rate of businesses owned by men.
• Approximately 21% of businesses in the U.S. are minority-owned.
• Research also shows that the most successful startups are founded by people age 45+, and there is a growing trend toward people starting new businesses in their 50s and 60s.

Why does this matter? Two reasons:

1. When people believe that entrepreneurship is solely the province of the young and male, we don't provide supports (e.g., funding, incubators, entrepreneurial support programs) for those who are not, limiting the potential of these vital entrepreneurs.
2. My friend JUANITA CHACON , referring to her work at the Latinas First Foundation , often says:

We cannot be what we cannot see.

Accurate representation in media and AI-generated content can inspire a broader range of people to see themselves as potential entrepreneurs, breaking down the barriers that stereotypes create.

Call to action

Let's help everyone see that entrepreneurs come in all ages, identities and zip codes.

1. For anyone expert in training AI, please provide ideas on how we can train systems and those running them to provide a different result.
2. For all of the rest of us, can I ask you in the comments to add a photo of yourself and a comment about your business, with the hashtag #IAmAnEntrepreneur? Let's start broadening the data set, shall we?

© Janine Vanderburg, 2024. All rights reserved.