Laura Bates on AI, Emerging Tech, and the New Age of Sexism

The Urgency of Addressing Digital Sexism

• ⚠️ The foundations of new worlds being built by AI and emerging technologies are at risk of embedding existing problems like sexism and racism.
• 💡 Acting and discussing these issues now is crucial, as it will be very difficult to undo these biases later.

Gendered Online Experiences

• 🌍 Online experiences are dramatically different for men and women, with women more likely to experience online abuse.
• 💔 Deepfake pornography is an overwhelmingly gendered problem, with 99% of it featuring women, often created without consent.
• 📊 A significant gap exists in AI usage between young men (79%) and women (60%), highlighting a potential digital divide.

The Impact of Online Abuse

• 😔 The creation and spread of deepfake pornography is a deeply violating experience, causing significant distress and loss of control.
• 📈 For seasoned individuals, receiving frequent rape and death threats is normalized, but the impact on younger individuals, like schoolgirls, can lead to PTSD and dropping out of education.
• 🏛️ Politicians are also being driven out of public service roles due to the severe impact of online abuse.

Tech Company Responsibility

• 🚫 The argument that tech companies are not responsible for user behavior on their platforms is challenged, especially for spaces intended to be more than just social.
• 🌐 For emerging virtual spaces like the Metaverse, where users will attend lectures and conduct business, a higher standard of safety should be expected from the outset.

Policy and Regulation

• ⚖️ Unlike the food industry, the tech industry has not historically faced the same level of accountability for harm caused by its products.
• 🇪🇺 While the European Commission is developing AI frameworks, there is significant government pushback, particularly in the U.S., with executive orders aimed at opposing such regulations.