Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The Rise of Deepfakes Demands Legislative Action

Women represent 99 percent of those targeted by deepfake “pornography,” which makes up 98 percent of all deepfake videos online. In 2023 alone, the volume of deepfake abuse videos surpassed the total of all previous years combined, with the number of nonconsensual videos doubling annually.

Those nonconsensual images are created and shared with the goal of humiliating and degrading the women and girls in them. The fallout is immense, and it goes beyond personal harm. The silencing effect leads to people stepping back from vital arenas like politics, journalism and public discourse. But that’s the point of this misogyny, isn’t it? It’s gender-based violence at its core.

Urgent action is needed, and effective legislation is a critical starting point.

War on Women Report: Unprovoked Attacks Against Women in New York City; Texas Medical Board Refuses to Clarify State Abortion Ban

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U.S. patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. But day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report: The Protect Victims of Digital Exploitation and Manipulation Act aims to ban the production and distribution of non-consensual, deepfake pornography; an award created to honor the life and accomplishments of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is being awarded to four right-wing men (and Martha Stewart); the Texas Medical Board refused to further specify the rules around the state’s highly restrictive ban on abortion; police made their first arrest in connection to an onslaught of unprovoked attacks against women in New York City; and more.

The War on Women Report: SCOTUS Allows Idaho to Deny Emergency Abortions; Taylor Swift Subjected to Online Sexual Abuse

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U.S. patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. But day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report: The Supreme Court will hear its second major abortion case; Pope Francis called for a ban on surrogacy; three new anti-trans bills were introduced in West Virginia; Gov. Ron DeSantis ended his presidential campaign after a second-place finish in Iowa; Texas has a higher number of pregnancies resulting from rape than any other state; and more.

Toward an Inclusive Artificial Intelligence: The Ms. Q&A With Gabriela de Queiroz

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Many people see language models, like ChatGPT and other new machine learning technologies like Meta’s Make-A-Video, as the beginning of the end. And as a woman in tech—a field dominated by men—Gabriela de Queiroz has reason to be skeptical of AI.

But when de Queiroz talks about her efforts to make artificial intelligence more inclusive, she takes a different approach to understanding the ever more influential and pervasive role of AI in contemporary societies.

The Ms. Q&A: Voto Latino’s María Teresa Kumar on the Latino Vote, Disinformation and How to Combat it

The Latino vote was instrumental in putting Joe Biden in the White House and sending four new senators to Congress.

Ms. reporter Lisa Rabasca Roepe spoke with María Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of Voto Latino, about the organization’s early beginnings, how it used artificial intelligence (AI) to find new voters and the prevalence of disinformation in the Latino community.