Although beneficial, the digital economy's implementation of AI still presents a challenge for individuals, particularly women, to participate in the broad sense.
By Sanasya Nadia Tuzahra
August 11, 2024
MODERN DIPLOMACY
Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to a system that operates based on human-defined objectives and has the capability to generate predictions, suggestions, or judgments that impact real or virtual surroundings. The systems are designed to function with different degrees of autonomy (OECD, 2020, as quoted in UNESCO et al., 2022). In the modern world, this technology has been integrated and employed in the functioning of the economy. In fact, the current trajectory of the digital economy businesses has duly acknowledged the significance of AI in its implementation. Although beneficial, the digital economy’s implementation of AI still presents a challenge for individuals, particularly women, to participate in the broad sense. Utilizing the scope of feminism, this essay is written to investigate the crippling effects of AI on the roles of women in the digital economy.
Feminism is one of the prominent theories in international relations that challenges the traditional international relations theory. This theory calls out the paradigms that are grounded upon the patriarchal norms and male experiences. It assesses the necessity to take into account the perspectives and participation of marginalized groups, specifically women, in the effort to comprehend the dynamic of global occurrences. In this theory, the issues that arise in international relations are argued to be a result of the “masculine” practices and the absence of women participation. When applying this logic to the development of AI, it brings about the essential point that the technology’s development is predominantly “masculine” in nature, frequently waiving women’s experiences and perspectives. This statement is further supported by several details. First, if one would trace into the initiation of AI, the technology was pioneered by John McCarty, a male computer and cognitive scientist. Second, when we examine the representation of gender in the technology sector, the field is seen to be dominated by men. It is reported that women only account for about 22% of the workforce in the AI sector worldwide (Hilale, 2021). These were what then exacerbated the dismissal of detrimental effect calculation resulting from the AI development to women.
The installation of AI in the practices of digital economy has decreased the altruistic provision of the transformation in bringing economic benefits to women. The digital economy is defined as the economy that is grounded upon the technologies of digital computing and is often regarded as the conduct of business through markets that are based on the internet and World Wide Web (WWW) (Bukht & Heel 2019, as cited in Riley, 2023). Some instances of the digital economy are online marketplaces and e-commerce. On an ideal note, digital transformation requires to oblige the “vulnerables” — groups of oftenly disadvantaged people due to their susceptibility to economic and social barriers, which includes women (ESCAP, 2022; Kominfo, 2023, as cited in Permadi, 2024). Thereby, the initiation of digital economy as a transformation from traditional economic setting was also aimed to provide the “good” to women. It is asserted to be a potent channel that offers women nuanced economic opportunities in the context of business establishment and pursuit of employment.
In the matter of business opportunities, the digital economy has provided a humongous platform for women to open up and operate businesses. Women entrepreneurs can sell and advertise their goods and services on e-commerce sites like Shopee, Lazada, and Tokopedia. According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) study, women entrepreneurs who establish their enterprises in e-commerce have the potential to increase their sales by 51% in comparison to those who do not (ERIA, 2021). Additionally, the global reach of these e-commerce platforms enables women to expand their business beyond domestic boundaries. For example, the Shopee e-commerce platform enabled an Indonesian fashion line founded by women, “Monomolly,” to successfully export its products to neighboring countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand (Anam, 2021). At the same time, the digital economy’s transformation also generates employment prospects for women. As an example, the demand for frontliners is substantial due to the intense connection between consumers and the online marketplace and e-commerce. This unleashes the employment potential for women, as front-liners and service work are primarily supported by women (Al-Hussaini, 2022). The type of employment includes being customer service, brand ambassador, and moderator for the business LIVE streams. Consequently, it is evident that women have the potential to utilize the digital economy platforms to revolutionize their social, political, and economic lives by altering and reshaping processes that generate opportunities for growth and development, thereby bridging numerous gaps in human socioeconomic development (Crittenden et al., 2019, as cited in Dharmayanti et al., 2022).
Unfortunately, due to the complexity and multifaceted nature of the digital economy, many have sought assistance beyond humans and invested in AI. At first, the involvement of AI in the digital economy was merely just for matters related to technology and engineering. For instance, AI is utilized to support the digital economy platform processes such as the transaction processes (i.e. process automation systems) and analytic processes (i.e. recommendation systems). However in recent progress, AI is also seen to be employed in the interaction processes of digital economy platforms (i.e. conversational system) (Alt, 2021). For an illustration, customer services of e-commerce platforms are now AI-based chatbots rather than humans. This can be seen in TANYA by TokoPedia, LISA by Lazada, and Clara by Blibli. Furthermore, the brand ambassadors and live streamers of businesses in digital economy platforms are also taken over by AI. For instance, there have been a lot of AI robots that replace humans to stream and sell products in China’s ecommerce, Taobao. As such, AI then becomes the primary force in a majority of sectors of the digital economy (Hang & Chen, 2022), even taking over portions of women’s participation.
Even worse, these AI systems have a tendency to include feminine characteristics and representations of women that may exacerbate the negative impacts on women. For example, the LISA ChatBot developed by Lazada is using a female name and persona, while the AI robots that host livestreams on TaoBao are made to resemble women. This behavior perpetuates the exploitation of women, putting them at risk of reinforcing harmful gender stereotypes and reducing them to mere objects of entertainment, rather than seeing them as equal participants in the society, economy, and technology. This can worsen the broader societal problems of inequality and bias against women in the technology sector and other areas. Moreover, if this trend persists, the representation of actual women in the professional environment may decline. The lack of representation can hinder efforts to empower women and promote gender equality in the digital economy workforce and participation sphere.
The addressing of this issue if seen through the lens of feminism would definitely be the inclusion of women in AI development. If the inclusion of women in the technology is increased, then there will be many more experiences, perspectives, and calculations coming from the women community that can be taken into account to the development in order to facilitate and curate the detrimental elements that may hinder women participation in the output. One facile step that can be taken is to reject the patriarchal notion of “men domination in STEM” and create a friendly environment for women to participate in, whether in the educational institutions or even in the workplace. In fact, the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields is not due to their lack of ability — it is noteworthy Ada Lovelace, a woman, was the world’s first coder. Thus, the primary reason for this disparity is the patriarchal structure of the system, which tends to favor and trust the opposite gender over women (Hilale, 2021). For instance, the school of engineering has this strong “tag” to masculinity, thereby disseminating unfriendliness to women to study in. Furthermore, as AI is coding-based and related to mathematics, the ongoing patriarchal belief that women are not able to do math and more attributable to social subjects is also very harmful to the encouragement of women participation in the development of AI technologies. Therefore, the dismissal of these patriarchal cultures will empower and welcome women in the sectors of STEM and AI, furthering a better consideration of women participation in the use of AI for the digital economy. Even better, this may also open up new opportunities for women to create startups or AI-related businesses, expanding their participation in digital transformation.
The aforementioned demonstrates that women continue to experience disadvantages as a consequence of Artificial Intelligence (AI)’s influence on the digital economy, as their participation has been diminished. It capitalized on the concept of “women” and incorporated the frontline service activities that had previously been led by women. The optimal solution would be to diminish the patriarchal culture that envelops technological development, which is the root of the issue. In this regard, it is imperative that we consider the potential benefits of these technological advancements and transformations for all, rather than a specific subsection of humanity that neglects women.
No comments:
Post a Comment