As a software developer, one of the first things you realize is that programs will do exactly what you tell them to. If you build complex algorithms to choose candidates based on nothing other than their merits, achievements and accolades, that's exactly what you'll get. If you need it to take into account other measurements, like balancing those fields along the lines of gender and ethnicity, then you really need to specify that as well.

I'm honestly surprised they flat out shut the project down, and didn't modify the thing to give some balancing points towards women to even it out. It's not like the entire project had to be scrapped because the initial algorithm didn't produce the results that they wanted...