ThAct : CS and Feminism - Cyberfeminism : Artificial Intelligence and the Unconscious Biases

 This activity is a part of my academic writing...

◼Cyberfeminism

Cyberfeminism is a feminist approach which foregrounds the relationship between cyberspace, the Internet, and technology. It can be used to refer to a philosophy, methodology or community. The term was coined in the early 1990s to describe the work of feminists interested in theorizing, critiquing, exploring and re-making the Internet, cyberspace and new-media technologies in general. The foundational catalyst for the formation of cyberfeminist thought is attributed to Donna Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto", third wave feminism, post-structuralist feminism, riot grrrl culture and the feminist critique of the blatant erasure of women within discussions of technology.

◼ Kirti Sharma: How to keep human bias out of AI?

To minimize bias, monitor for outliers by applying statistics and data exploration. At a basic level, AI bias is reduced and prevented by comparing and validating different samples of training data for representativeness. Without this bias management, any AI initiative will ultimately fall apart.Machine learning bias, also sometimes called algorithm bias or AI bias, is a phenomenon that occurs when an algorithm produces results that are systemically prejudiced due to erroneous assumptions in the machine learning process.

◼ Robin Hauser: Can we protect AI from our biases?

AI can reduce unconscious bias inresume screening.To further prevent unconscious bias at the screening stage, AI recruiting software can be programmed to ignore demographic information such as gender, race, and age or proxies for race and socioeconomic status such as the names of schools attended and addresses.Apart from algorithms and data, researchers and engineers developingthese systems are also responsible for AI bias.

◼ Cyber Space and Women's Identity

Gender related identity formation of women has been influenced by numerous parameters in recent years. The status of women in this world today is not comparable to that in the past. Significant changes have occurred as communities and households respond to social and economic shifts associated with globalization, new technologies and environmental pressures. What is obvious is that, along with the globalization and current social and intellectual upheavals, society and women both have adopted a more transitory and unbalanced attitude towards women’s gender identity. 

Of the most remarkable factors impacting on this shift in attitude has been the role of mass media, modern media such as the internet in particular. Meanwhile among the different views of identity, there is often a shared assumption that the ways in which identity is defined and hence what counts as identity are undergoing far-reaching changes in the contemporary world. This is certainly debatable, but it does imply that one place to look for evidence of change would be women, and perhaps specifically their relation with new technologies.

 Therefore, I intend to raise some broad points about how we understand digital technology, women and their relationship. This paper first explores theoretical perspectives on cyberfeminism within the definition of identity and its relation with gender. Then the formation of female identity and its elements in regard with media will be contemplated. The most essential aim is investigating women’s gender identity and its relevance to media, modern media such as the internet in particular. For this study I examine women’s representation in media particularly the internet with a focus on stealthy freedom campaign which allow me to show how Iranian women are shaping their identity quit apart from the pressure of a male dominated society that will provide further insight into this unresolved question. The study of the impact of media on women’s identity and an analysis of the due changes together with suggesting strategies to navigate towards this impact will be other serious concerns.

Thank you...