IT for Change acted as project consultants for the project 'Towards Substantive Equality in Artificial Intelligence: Transformative AI Policy for Gender Equality and Diversity'. The project was led by Paola Ricaurte Quijano (Tecnológico de Monterrey and Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University) and Benjamin Prud’homme (Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute) under the aegis of the GPAI Responsible AI Working Group. As project consultants, we contributed to the development of a research framework to analyze the findings from regional consultations and specific policy recommendations to incorporate gender equality and diversity considerations in AI.
Drawing on gender-transformative approaches, this report advances a transformative approach to AI policy to achieve substantive equality. This approach has three dimensions
- Remedying systemic disadvantage (the right to inclusion)
- Redressing the democratic deficit (the right to participation)
- Reversing misrecognition (the right to dignity).
A transformative policy can actively further the right to inclusion by taking action on the following fronts:
- Eliminating harms of direct and indirect discrimination in AI ecosystems.
- Instituting obligations on AI ecosystem developers and providers to promote equality, inclusive design processes, and affirmative action for women and other marginalized groups
- Steering public and private innovation to generate benefits for marginalized groups. This includes, for example, dedicated budgets to support assistive AI innovations for accessibility and social security for racialized populations.
- Protecting the data commons and open AI innovation from private capture through appropriate IP frameworks grounded in the principle of open science to democratise the benefits of scientific progress.
Read the full output here.