in her new book ‘the new age of sexism’, laura bates investigates how AI currently impacts our wellbeing – and more specifically, the wellbeing of girls, women and other marginalised groups all over the world.
AI is already here
AI is the new normal.
and with anything this big, there are of course those who call doomsday and worry about how, sometime in the distant future, AI could be the end of humankind.
there is a third group, smaller in numbers though. it’s those who worry about the risks and dangers that AI poses in the here and now.
old patterns, new platforms
laura bates – sunday times bestselling author and founder of the everyday sexism project – belongs to this third group.
what she found is as hair-raising as it is chilling.
not only are our current AI specialists baking bias from training data directly into these new tools and systems, but old patterns of inequality, violence and abuse are finding new outlets.
as violent and abusive behaviour is normalised in these new online contexts, it becomes that much more likely to spread from the digital world into the real one.
where it starts – and where it leads
from harassment in virtual worlds to s*x robots, from ‘chatbot’ girlfriends to deepfakes and revenge pornography, this abusive behaviour may start online, but it doesn’t stay there.
most of all, however, it has very IRL consequences for victims and survivors.
hard truths we’d rather avoid
as with her previous books, laura bates illustrates a depravity that we usually prefer not to see.
the entitlement, hate and utter disrespect of abusers are hard to stomach – and their sheer numbers and scale are as nauseating as they are terrifying.
i had to take breaks while reading, as the overall effect is rather dispiriting.
time to act
unfortunately, though, ignorance is a luxury we cannot afford.
as AI is here to stay, the direction it will take from here on out is a responsibility we all share.
time to raise our voices and get involved!
