Artificial intelligence needs a re-brand. With disproportionally more men contributing, A.I., with its subfield of machine learning, has evolved with massive gender biases. The reason? It has yet to reach the majority of a significant pool of people - women.
Some of the most profitable companies in the world have, and continue to heavily invest in AI startups. Yet, investors ignore major problems. This isn’t new. Since the dawn of industry, companies have actively alienated potential customer bases. That alienation can exist in many different forms at once: homophobia, sexism, racism, fat-phobia, ableism etc etc. Whether or not you’ve been subject to this targeting is beside the point. It exists, and A.I. has proven no different. The statistics around the A.I. gender gap are FRIGHTENING. You can start reading about them here and here. It is now a fact. A.I. engines exhibit biased results.
I don’t want anything in my life to be determined by 20 year old men thank you very much!
Now, we all know the advancement of A.I. is complex and unpredictable but let’s just zoom into a basic principle of business.
If I market my product as being “for everyone”, and one of my biggest pitches to that consumer base is that my product could create ANYTHING YOU COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE, but HALF of my potential customers felt the barrier to entry was so high, the product wasn’t even worth trying. . . that would be a big fucking problem! Call the board in for an emergency meeting.
Do men at the top have even more to lose in women having a keen understanding of A.I. than what they intend to invest? Will sexism always supersede profit?
As it stands now, A.I. seems no different than any other tool the rich use to increase the staggering wealth gap.
But here’s where it gets interesting. The generation with the biggest gender gap in A.I. users? Gen Z.
However, I think Gen Z is the generation of women with the biggest opportunity. They are at a point in history I don’t think we’ve ever been. Gen Z women simultaneously have more financial independence and access to information than ever before AND are still young during this new A.I. revolution. We (yes I am a 1998 baby) have not passed the point of no return.
If I wanted to get into the automobile or oil or even energy business, I’d be shit out of luck. We may be too far behind to become disgustingly rich from A.I., but that’s probably a good thing.
What we DO have, is the ability to understand this new tool and make it work for us in ways only we know how.
Here’s where it gets tricky:
My sentiment is nice, but the barrier to entry is still very prevalent. I’ll be our test subject on the matter.
Some background: I was not raised in a particularly tech-forward family. I got my degree in a completely human based analogue field - theater. My greatest love is practical filmmaking. I had never even played around with A.I. until a few weeks ago. However, being a visual person more than anything, it was always the generative A.I. images that kept me away. Every single one I saw was:
Disturbing.
Fucking ugly.
To me, they all look like they were created by the same group of 2014 Tumblr incels who go to comic/anime conventions and are addicted to porn. Like why the fuck do all the women look like this?
THAT’S what I saw. So you can understand why I was completely UNINTERESTED in generative A.I. especially. I thought, with so much incredible art to see, read, hear, and experience, why would I waste my time on this corny ass shit?
Of course, I needed to do my own research and look deeper. Even now though, it is hard to find information about A.I. that is packaged in a way that keeps me engaged. Hence needing a RE-BRAND! Men create content about A.I. to target other like-minded men. Are you a budding pedophile? Might I introduce Midjourney?
It seems counterintuitive that it would be difficult for a design forward person to find helpful A.I. resources but herein lies my issue.
What about the women who are not naturally interested in A.I.? Who do not have hours and hours of free time to spend searching for relevant information? Who see the same sexist images I do and choose not to explore further?
We know A.I. exists. We know it will, and already has started changing everything. We just can’t see how it might fit into the lives we already lead.
How can A.I. be a useful tool for a 23 year old marketing major in New York City who also makes fashion content on Instagram?
How can A.I. help a woman who has just started an OnlyFans, an event planning company, or is stay at home mother of three?
Even key searches within a specific field yield:
A corny YouTube video or even worse, a reel, that looks like it was made using AI.
A video made BMFM (by men for men).
Sponsored content.
An article on a website with so many pop up ads you can’t see the actual words on the screen.
An ad for the newest A.I. application.
Great resources exist, but finding them is half the battle.
Some positives:
From what I’ve learned, generative A.I. especially, is all about how you talk to the engine. Your keywords and specificity.
Communication + imagination. Sorry, who does that better than women?
We are constantly criticized for making up stories in our heads and running too far with our imaginations. However, it is that exact skill that translates so well. I firmly believe that it could be revolutionary for women if they were able to create a working process for themselves that lessened their need for unwanted influence. I think A.I. can help with that.
It doesn’t matter the industry I’ve worked in or my experience level in a particular medium, I’ve always had men try to undermine my intelligence and attempt to bulldoze my vision.
Whatever the process: concept art, video editing, sound design, color grading, copywriting etc etc. People, and sometimes without knowing it, impose their understanding of the world onto your work. What appeals to me so much is that A.I. seems it could help women maintain their vision until they are ready and willing to allow inevitable interference in. Finding great collaborators is one of life’s great challenges. I think the less random people involved in a project, the better. Now, jobs being replaced with automated machines is a major problem. Still, there is something to be gained in not having to outsource certain parts of a project.
A FEW RESOURCES:
This incredible essay by Mario Carpo was how I first started forming my understanding of the history of artificial intelligence. It is through the lens of architecture, but helpful nonetheless. You don’t need to understand all of it. Each of these resources is simply to help create a foundation that you build from (which is the entire point of The Reference List).
This video presentation speaks about A.I. from an HR perspective and is aimed at entrepreneurs. Throw it on in the background while you get ready to go out. Keep your AirPods in while cleaning your bathroom. Information breeds confidence.
If you are in a visual artist, the following were great for me:
The above can be molded to fit your needs. Have a specific shot in mind for a short film you want to direct? Need a kick ass image for a photo shoot pitch deck? Want to show your best friend the crazy idea you had for a house?
Futurepedia acts as a database for A.I. tools.
Here are the instagram of some A.I. artists you might find inspiration in.
We all know this story well. It’s likely the exact tools you need don’t exist yet. Still, if you start researching, I promise you will find helpful resources and your algorithms will, for better or worse, start pushing you more and more content.
Spend a little time learning, talk to your friends about their thoughts on how you can all incorporate A.I., and let’s secretly take over without them ever seeing it coming!
Thanks for reading, would love to chat in the comments or over on my instagram @the.referencelist
ALLA PROSSIMA <3
