AI Threats to Women’s Rights

Abstract

The last few decades have seen a remarkable increase in the accessibility and capabilities of technologies using artificial intelligence, augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technologies, which allow users to create new virtual digital worlds, or generate unseen text, images, videos and sound. However, these new spaces have also provided new opportunities to use such technologies to harm women. This article tackles the threat of AI technologies to women’s rights. First, we introduce the deepfake pornography technology based on AI. Second, we expose the gaps in the international legal order governing women's rights against threats posed by those technologies. Then, we provide three examples for domestic/regional legal frameworks which address AI threats to women's rights. These include regulations enacted in some US states, the UK’s pending legislation and a proposal of a European Union law. We highlight the different challenges facing the creation and implementation of those laws. We address the different options for holding someone accountable for violations of women's rights through the Al technologies. We pinpoint the existence of gaps and weaknesses in contemporary legislations addressing Al threats to women's rights. Still we commend the efforts of the above leading jurisdictions that have brought developments in this important subject. Finally, we propose a way to identify the legally responsible entity in order to avoid the socially undesirable behavior that comes from deepfake pornography.