GAIYA

New research project will address gender inequality in AI skills

We use artificial intelligence (AI) to translate the content on our website. This web page has been machine translated. If there are any uncertainties, please refer to the Danish text.
June 3. 2026

The image is generated with AI.

A Nordic-Baltic collaboration between a number of universities will investigate how boys and girls in Scandinavian upper secondary schools adopt and use generative artificial intelligence differently. They will also experiment with and develop teaching methods that can even out a possible gender gap in upper secondary school students' AI skills, and ultimately develop relevant tools for upper secondary school education in the various partner countries. Innovation Fund Denmark is co-financing the project.

The arrival of generative artificial intelligence in schools has already brought about major changes in the teaching and learning of students. Language models such as ChatGPT have become, for better or worse, a central part of students' toolkits and will, by all accounts, become no less indispensable when they enter the workforce. However, there is reason to fear that not everyone is on an equal footing when it comes to getting the full benefit of the technology.

According to associate professor at the Department of Culture and Communication at Aalborg University, Kim Toft Hansen, boys are generally quicker than girls to adopt new digital tools, and this general difference during education can lead to permanent gender inequality.

- If boys and girls do not get the same digital skills from the Danish education system, then we will ultimately see a similar distortion in the labor market, as Kim Toft Hansen says.

He is the coordinator of the newly launched Nordic-Baltic project GAIYA, which will investigate and propose solutions to gender inequality for high school students in the use of generative artificial intelligence. Be it language models like ChatGPT and Claude, image generation models like Midjourney and DALL-E, or AI music generators like Suno. Based on existing research, the team behind GAIYA has an assumption that boys and men are more comfortable with and competent in using generative artificial intelligence than girls and women.

In the first phase of the project, the various partners on the project will collect data from upper secondary schools in Denmark, Norway and Sweden to map the extent of the problem. In the next phase, they will use different didactic tools in teaching at some of the upper secondary schools on a trial basis. Finally, the project experiences will be translated into a number of concrete teaching methods for upper secondary school teachers throughout Scandinavia as well as Finland and Estonia.

For Kim Toft Hansen, Nordic cooperation is meaningful for several reasons:

- We base our empirical collection on Scandinavia because there are many similarities in the way the education systems are structured in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In addition, all three countries have a strong tradition of including digital literacy in mother tongue education.

Digital education is precisely the goal of the call under the joint Nordic research fund NordForsk, of which GAIYA is a part. The call, called the Nordic-Baltic initiative on responsible use of Artificial Intelligence, which includes a total of 17 projects, aims to support the ethical use of artificial intelligence in the Nordic-Baltic societies.

Kim Toft Hansen is already pointing to teaching methods that can make the introduction to generative artificial intelligence more inclusive and particularly highlights a method called playful learning.

- The idea is that through a more playful pedagogy, one can approach new digital tools in a way that makes them less anxiety-provoking. At a time when there is still great uncertainty about the technology, it can have a disarming effect for the teacher to stand at eye level with the students and explore the AI tools with them with openness and playfulness, says Kim Toft Hansen.

He refers to a number of studies that show that this teaching method appeals more broadly among students than traditional methods.

Facts

  • The Innovation Fund is investing DKK 3 million in projects under the call the Nordic-Baltic initiative on responsible use of Artificial Intelligence under NordForsk.
  • Total Budget for GAIYA: DKK 29,393,777.40.
  • Duration: 2026 - 2028
  • Program: International Collaborations - Nordic
  • Official title: GAIYA – Generative AI in Education for Young Adults: A Gender-Inclusive Nordic-Baltic Perspective

About the partners

In addition to Aalborg University, GAIYA also includes Østfold University College from Norway. Gothenburg University from Sweden. And Tartu University from Estonia.