Laura Bates on the New Age of Sexism: AI and Emerging Technologies' Impact
Laura Bates, a London - based feminist author and activist, embarked on a significant journey. After spending her early twenties as a nanny in the UK, she observed that the young girls under her care were overly preoccupied with their bodies, influenced by the marketing they were exposed to. In 2012, she initiated The Everyday Sexism Project. This website was dedicated to documenting and combating sexism, misogyny, and gender - based violence globally. It highlighted subtle yet insidious instances such as invisible labor, the practice of referring to women as "girls" in professional settings, and inappropriate comments on women's attire. In 2014, the content from the site was transformed into a book.
Since then, the landscape of sexual harassment has expanded into online spaces. Bates herself became a victim of deepfake pornography, an experience that led her to write her new book, The New Age of Sexism: How AI and Emerging Technologies Are Reinventing Misogyny, published on September 9 by Sourcebooks.
Bates notes that while gender - based violence is still predominantly perpetrated by those close to the victim, the easy, quick, and often inexpensive or even free access to artificial intelligence is rapidly lowering the threshold for a particular form of abuse. She tells WIRED, "Any person of any age with internet access can now... create highly realistic, abusive, pornographic images of any woman or girl from a fully - clothed internet screengrab."
In The New Age of Sexism, through firsthand research involving conversations with tech creators and women victimized by AI and deepfake technology, as well as using the chat and sexbots she condemns, Bates maps out how, if not urgently and properly regulated, AI becomes a new frontier in the subjugation of women.
She points out, "I know people might think I'm an over - reacting, nagging feminist. But look at the top levels of big tech companies; men there are saying the same things as I am." She cites Jan Leike, who left OpenAI last year due to concerns over the company prioritizing "shiny products" over safety, as an example. "High - level people within these companies are sounding the alarm. The question is whether we're willing to listen."
Bates also discusses with WIRED several other aspects:
AI's Influence on Kids: How AI girlfriends and virtual assistants can inculcate misogyny in children.
Environmental Impact on Women: How AI's environmental footprint affects women first.
Tech Devolving into Bias: How new technologies quickly devolve into the bigoted biases of their creators and users.
Interview Excerpts
New Developments Devolving into Misogyny
WIRED: One aspect of your book that stands out is how new developments quickly devolve into misogyny. Is this a fair assessment?
Laura Bates: This is a long - established pattern. We witnessed it with the internet, social media, and online pornography. Generally, when we gain access to new technologies, a significant portion rapidly gets adapted to harass, abuse, subjugate women, and maintain patriarchal control. Tech itself is neutral; it's imbued with the bias of its creators. It reflects historical misogyny but gives it new forms, new ways to target victims, and new types of abuse. What's particularly worrying about AI, especially generative AI, is that it not only repeats existing abuse but intensifies it through additional threats, harassment, and control by abusers.
Deepfakes and the Expansion of Abuse
While most image - based abuse is still committed by intimate partners or those close to the victim, deepfakes broaden the scope of potential abusers and victims. Could you elaborate?
Laura Bates: Deepfakes provide astonishing access to victims. Any internet - connected person, regardless of age, can relatively easily, quickly, and inexpensively (or even for free) create highly realistic, abusive, pornographic images of any woman or girl from a clothed internet image. This is rapidly lowering the barrier to this form of abuse. For instance, in the US, UK, and Australia, there are cases of school - aged children, as young as 10 or 11, using such tools to create these images of their classmates.
Regulatory Timeliness
The UK's Online Safety Act and Australia's ban on social media for kids under 16 have been implemented. Do you think by the time similar laws and safeguards for children's AI use are in place, it will be too late?
Laura Bates: I wrote this book because I believe we're on the verge of a precipice. These untested new technologies are being integrated into the foundation of our future society. Even since I completed the book, there has been an outpouring of stories demonstrating the harm of these technologies. One major issue is the rush to make products publicly available for profit without effective safeguards and regulation. This has a negative impact on society, especially on children in their formative years, when they're most vulnerable. For example, with AI tools enabling interaction with and creation of AI companions or girlfriends, teenage boys can customize them in detail. These avatars are presented as sentient beings, always available, submissive, and ready for any sexual role - play, including extreme sexual violence, without consent.
The Use of Sexbots and AI Girlfriends
What would you say to those who claim sexbots and AI girlfriends can help people with interpersonal and romantic relationship difficulties?
Laura Bates: As the app creators claim, these are not tools to help boys or men develop healthy relationship skills or reduce real - life violence. There's no evidence to support these claims. It's a marketing ploy by companies to mask the fact that they're selling misogyny. AI nudifying apps often don't work on men's body images! It's pure exploitation, relying on dehumanizing and objectifying women. It presents a highly misogynistic view of relationships and women. The idea that this is good for women is absurd, and the claim that it helps men is insulting and simplistic. While there are real mental health and loneliness issues, misogyny in app form can't solve them. Enabling people to act out these fantasies is more likely to escalate crimes, not prevent them.
Virtual Assistants and Techno - Sexism
Has the anthropomorphizing and feminization of virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa contributed to techno - sexism?
Laura Bates: Researchers estimate that 10% of conversations with virtual assistants are abusive. Given the billions of daily users, including millions of children growing up hearing such abuse, it has a significant social impact. It may not be the same as a sexbot with a rape feature, but it links secretarial and administrative tasks to femaleness. It's frustrating that feminists and women in tech have raised concerns, only to be dismissed, while mainly male - dominated communities profit.
AI's Environmental Impact on Women
How does AI's environmental impact affect women first?
Laura Bates: Women are at the forefront of the global environmental crisis, often the first and worst affected. A single ChatGPT search consumes 10 times the energy of an average Google search. There's a lack of awareness about these connections, and when they're pointed out, there's a dismissive attitude. Additionally, in the supply chain, the extraction of materials for AI tools exploits people in resource - rich areas, and women in manual AI data labeling are often underpaid, exploited, and sexually harassed.
The Way Forward for AI and Emerging Technologies
It's difficult to see a clear path. What do you think is the way forward for AI and emerging technologies?
Laura Bates: Potential solutions exist, but we must act quickly. Regulation is crucial. Globally, the situation is concerning. The Trump administration pushed back against regulation, discouraging other governments from implementing safeguards. At the AI Action Summit in Paris this year, although 60 countries signed an agreement for open, accessible, safe, and fair AI, the US and UK refused to sign. However, there are positive signs from the Council of Europe regarding developing a reasonable regulatory framework. There's an unfounded fear and squeamishness about regulating tech. But if a company makes tens of billions in profit and has top minds working for it, it has the means to make its platform safe; it's just choosing not to. It's not about being anti - tech or anti - innovation; rather, it's about ensuring that the potential for human benefit isn't left to spiral out of control in the hands of a few power - hungry tech individuals.
