Wired for Bias: How AI is Keeping the Patriarchy Alive

Welcome to the overwhelming world of technology! Where everything seems shiny, smart and oh-so-predictably biased! As we are witnesses to the ever-growing evolution of tech, that seems to take over all aspects of our lives (social, personal, professional and lately even creative), we’re faced with a curious paradox: while all of this is expected to be the “objective”, the rational, the calculate agent, it often sides with good-old patriarchy. How so? Take a seat and get ready to dive into the hot mess that is gender bias in artificial intelligence.

What is techno-patriachy

Techno-patriarchy is the term that was coined to describe this phenomenon. AI tools such as hiring algorithms that consistently rank male candidates over women, content censorship algorithms that tend to flag women’s bodies as sexually explicit or racy, facial recognition algorithms that are means of governmental control (such as cases in Iran or Argentina), are just some of the many ways in which tech proves to definitely not be objective, but rather reinforcing the same patriarchal, male-centered and discriminatory narrative. The tech industry itself is a male-dominated world, with little to no accountability or regulation over these issues- without proper diversity in the hands of the “producers”, there is little room for tech to improve in this sense. 

While technology is usually understood as a digital, electronic, abstract “thing”, we forget that its roots are still in the material world. Devices we use daily such as smartphones, laptops, batteries rely on metals such as cobalt that not are not definitely not sustainable environmentally, nor socially. The Democratic Republic of Congo supplies 60% of the world’s cobalt, and women usually perform in toxic environments, as they work in direct contact with the minerals – which leads to various health problems sucha as menstrual disruption, miscarriages, cancer and respiratory conditions- all while still earning half of what an adult male makes. Isn’t that crazy? 

Who am I

Hi, I’m Anisa, and as you can tell from my introductory text, my main interest lies in gender-related issues . While having graduated from a Communication Management bachelor’s degree, that didn’t stop me from relating my studies with what really interested me – so for my final thesis I explored the ways in which media portrays and reinforces gender stereotypes and their sociological implications.

Today, I am currently a Master’s student in Communication for Development, and through this blog I hope to explore and learn, together with you, more about the inequalities of technology and Artificial Intelligence. I know, it must seem so overwhelming and out of control at times, but little by little, the more we gain knowledge, the more we’ll have power to fight it. As feminist author Audre Lorde wrote, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” – but in order for us to dismantle the master’s house, we shall first understand its tools. 

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