By: Agence France-Presse January 10, 2014 1:15 PM

Detail of the controversial cover of the journal of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence. 'The front-cover design is not intended to discriminate against women,' the group said in a statement on its website.

InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5

TOKYO - A Japanese academic society has apologized for the front cover of their journal, which used a drawing of a cleaning woman with a cable in her back to depict the idea of artificial intelligence.

The Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence was hoping to make "Jinkou Chinou (Artificial Intelligence)" more appealing to potential readers with a cover illustration on the first edition of the new year.

Out went the dense tracts of text and complicated diagrams that have adorned the front for the last few decades, and in came an attractive, doe-eyed young woman holding a sweeping brush and with a thick cable plugged into her back.

A red-faced JSAI admitted Thursday that its attempt to popularize its small-circulation magazine may have misfired and apologized for any offense it had caused.

"The front-cover design is not intended to discriminate against women," the group said in a statement on its website.

The design "gave ... room for the interpretation that women should clean," it said.

"We deeply regret that, as a public academic group, this matter was not considered more carefully," said the statement issued under the names of the journal's chief editor and his deputy, both of whom are scientists.

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Japan academics apologize for using maid to depict AI