Thanks to the open call I led my first workshop On gender & AI: Why are so many robots female?
Digital technologies need to be continuously confronted with feminist methodologies of analyzing power structures. In this workshop, we explore various issues women face in the digital environment. What is gender bias in AI? How is it dangerous? Why are so many AIs female? Can feminist practices impact the future of technologies?
Nowadays, our virtual and real lives are almost entirely entwined. Boundaries between virtual and real, online and offline, and genders are becoming somewhat blurry. Yet, opposed to the strong proclamations of the cyberfeminists of the 90s, cyberspace has not developed into a kingdom of liberation and self-empowerment. It has also helped and is helping to reinforce existing hierarchies and power structures.
We must look for new ways of examining digitality alongside gender and sexuality. Digital technologies need to be continuously confronted with feminist methodologies of analyzing power structures and one’s own potential and agency within.
How can we fight these inequalities and initiate social change? What do we mean by gender bias in artificial intelligence, and how can it be dangerous or even harmful? Why are so many AI assistants female? What does it mean to be a cyberfeminist today? How feminist and queer practices can forcibly impact the future of technologies?
This workshop aims to engage people from different backgrounds to explore problems that women face nowadays within digital environments. The goal is to generate ideas for a livable future of emancipation and gender justice by examining the relationship between gender and digital culture. In small groups, we will design AI systems that tackle some of the problems through the optics of the interdependency of activism and aesthetics.
You can watch the whole thing here>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtQvroq483w
https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lFJuUvc=/
https://uroboros.design/events/on-gender-ai-why-are-so-many-robots-female/