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Queer and Feminist AI:

Technological Imaginaries and Imaginary Technologies, 2024

 

18 to 20 November 2024
Virtual

 

Application Deadline: 15 October 2024

About the Deep Dive

Women and people with diverse gender and sexual identities and practices have been disproportionately impacted, affected and made vulnerable by the widespread rise of artificial intelligence (AI). While the technology-facilitated discrimination and violence towards these communities is not new, AI poses new challenges which cannot be easily explained or addressed by our existing frameworks of gender and sexual justice and rights. 

The ‘Deep Dive on Queer and Feminist AI’ identifies some patterns in the dominant modes of talking about and thinking through the relationship between gender, sexuality and AI, and shows the limitations of these framings. The deep dive is an exercise in narrative change practice: Through feminist and queer pedagogies, invitational dialogues, reflective co-creation, and critical reading and thinking, we propose new ways by which we can understand the entanglements of gender, sexuality and AI. This understanding will enable us to imagine new modes of negotiating with AI technologies and new approaches to shaping technological imaginaries of the future. 

The deep dive does not require expertise or experience in dealing with AI questions. It is open to anybody – activists, scholars, researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, regulators, arts and cultural practitioners, and people with a critical interest in the topic – to learn and build solidarities and expressions so that we can change how we talk about queer and feminist AI. The 3-day deep dive is an online-only programme, where each day opens with an input, leads to a collaborative task, and then a reflective conversation to critique, change and repair our AI-driven queer and feminist futures. 

Pedagogy & Content

The exploration into Feminist and Queer AI is guided by a critical unblackboxing of technologies. We begin with the technicity and logic of AI and locate the different ways in which gender, sexuality, and bodies are implicated in different life-cycles of AI development.

  1. AI Promises: The first day begins by looking at the promises that AI technologies come with, and how they shape our understanding of gender and sexuality. We explore the possibility of rewriting these promises and creating different ways of gender and queer expressions.; 
  2. AI Mandates: The second day examines how gender and sexuality are constructed through narratives of control and domination. We see how the discrimination against and abuse of gendered and sexually diverse bodies is not merely in the application but in the very structure and form of AI building;
  3. AI Futures: The last day looks at AI as an emergent technology. Focusing particularly on the rise of Generative AI, we see how the landscape of meaning-making is shifting and how our attempts at movement and community building will have to adapt for these new transitions. 

Objectives

  1. To understand gender and sexuality beyond the applications of AI technologies.
  2. To locate the position of gender and sexuality in the making and form of AI technologies.
  3. To imagine alternatives to the naturalized forms of AI that are given to us.
  4. To question the human-centered AI principles and develop our own principles of engaging with AI futures.
  5. To anticipate the changes brought by Generative AI and developing approaches to adapt to emergent technologies.
  6. To collectively build creative, speculative, and critical imaginaries of living and working with AI.

For Who

The deep dive is for activists, researchers, human rights practitioners, journalists and other media practitioners, and artists, working on issues of gender and sexuality, on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people, sexual rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights, rights of persons with disabilities, HIV and AIDS, violence against women or gender-based violence; and/or working on issues of democracy, civic space, freedom of expression, assembly and association, dissent and protest, digital rights, and who want to expand their theoretical knowledge of these issues through a feminist lens. 

Participants should be embedded in human rights, tech policy, digital rights, and/or feminist movements, or working closely with civil society and/or movements to advance their goals. The deep dive is not for full-time students.

We encourage members of structurally excluded groups across the global South and South East Asia to apply.

By Who

This Feminist Tech deep dive is presented by Dr Nishant Shah, and co-created by CREA. 

CREA is a global feminist human rights organization led by feminists in the global South; CREA works to build feminist leadership, expand sexual and reproductive freedoms, and advance human rights of all people.

Inclusion

We hope to create something which is meaningful and inclusive, for all participants, especially structurally excluded people — such as those who are women’s human rights defenders, trans, intersex, nonbinary, lesbian, bisexual or gay people, disabled people, people living with HIV, sex workers etc.

Accessibility & Language

We will provide reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. We will provide sign language interpretation (as needed) and closed captioning in English for all. We will also provide transcripts post-session.

When & Where

The deep dive is scheduled for 18, 19 and 20 November 2024. 

It will be conducted virtually, with attention paid to confidentiality, privacy and security.

Application Deadline and Selection Process 

Applications are due on or before 15th October 2024.  Around 50 applicants will be selected to attend the Tech Deep-dive.

Please note that only shortlisted applicants will be contacted. Please write to athira.purushothaman@creaworld.org if you have any questions.

Accessibility

Accessible versions of this call here can be found here: (PDF) & (Word). Applicants can also find accessible versions of the form here (PDF) & (Word), which can be emailed to athira.purushothaman@creaworld.org

If sending by email, please write ‘Tech Deep Dive Application Form’ in the subject line of the email.