This year, 8 million deepfakes were shared across the internet – the majority being non-consenual porn. When I heard that statistic I had been working at a sandwich shop, reading a chapter on deepfakes from Laura Bates’ book ‘The New Age of Sexism’ when my eyes flitted over the words “8 million”. I read it again, bewildered, shocked, disgusted. Then the bell rang and a customer waltzed in. “What can I get for you?” I asked, trying to distract myself from what I had just read.
“It’s not just our clothes that are being stripped off, but our agency too.”
It’s not often that online misogyny surprises me – sickens me, always, – but surprising me is rare. After all, I did grow up with unsolicited dick pics and nonconsensual sharing of nudes being a pretty standard adolescent experience. But to know that anyone could take an image of me from my Instagram and easily abuse me through their screens makes me feel utterly powerless. It’s not just our clothes that are being stripped off, but our agency too. As Laura Bates says, deepfake pornography is not just sexualization, it’s subjugation. Like much of traditional porn, deepfakes often depict women being dominated by men in disturbing, masochistic ways.
But it’s not just the content that reduces women to sub-human. AI generated porn gives men the chance to sexually abuse a woman without her even having to be a real person. She doesn’t need to be in the room. She doesn’t need to be a real body. She doesn’t need to be human. We are reduced to merely pixels on a screen. Not that the abuse would be better if it was in person, of course not – but the fact that women can be completely removed from the narrative and solely controlled by men reinforces the idea that women are at their fingertips. Literally…fingertips on a keyboard.
Now I know what you’re wondering – what the hell does this have to do with the climate crisis?! I’m getting to that. But first I had to get out some anger. Now that’s done, let’s talk about something else that makes me angry – how AI’s destroying the planet one enter key at a time. Environmental Scholar Alex de Vries-Galo found that AI guzzles more water in a year than the bottled water industry.
This overconsumption of water and energy leads to an increased release of greenhouse gas emissions, trapping heat in the atmosphere resulting in a damaged ozone layer and global warming. And by 2030, these figures are expected to double. The London School of Economics predicts that AI’s energy output could exceed the entirety of Japan’s current electrical usage – that’s a whole countries’ worth of power!
But what I want you to think about is how much of this energy, this water, this electricity, is being used to appease the abusive fantasies of men. Sickening, isn’t it? To think that greenhouse gas emissions are increasing so that men can abuse women from the safety of their couch.
Take Elon Musk’s xAI, the parent company of chatbot service ‘Grok’. The site recieved huge heat for allowing people to share and create non-consenual deepfakes through its resources. The data center in Memphis responsible for this programme uses gas-powered air turbines, causing direct harm to natural spaces. Therefore, excess gas has been expelled into our atmosphere to support the creation of AI porn. So, the issues of online abuse and AI-induced climate change are interlinked – misogyny creates a demand for these services, and the environment suffers as a result.
To make matters worse, these environmental impacts also cause human illness such as asthma, heart issues, and even forms of cancer to those who live in the affected areas – predominantly black communities. Additionally, back women are 84% more likely to experience online abuse than white women. This means that deepfakes more often affect black women, and create environmental impacts which also more often affect black women. It’s a double-whammy of systemic neglect!
The AI boom is creating a future through a foundation of abuse and discrimination. But, is this all that surprising when the big tech bosses such as Elon Musk have rubbed shoulders with the likes of Epstein and Trump? Their politics certainly doesn’t reflect environmental activism or female empowerment, so why would their products?
The UK government has been making some efforts against online abuse with their 2023 Online Safety Act and emerging conversations about potentially banning social media for under 16s. In terms of Groks’ crack down on deepfake image creation, Labour MP Jess Asato told the Guardian: “While it is a step forward to have removed the universal access to Grok’s disgusting nudifying features, this still means paying users can take images of women without their consent to sexualise and brutalise them. Paying to put semen, bullet holes or bikinis on women is still digital sexual assault and xAI should disable the feature for good.”
“100 angry feminists are way more powerful than a loser with his laptop.”
This raises the question of whether the governments’ measures do enough to stop online sexual harassment, or if they merely put a bandage over a deep-rooted issue of a misogynistic society.
If you’re feeling a bit like I was when I first thought this through, you’re probably feeling very angry. But not to fear, the feminists are here! There are ways that we can enact change. Groups like Glitch and the End Violence Against Women coalition, are instrumental in campaigning for tighter legislation which protects women from online harassment. After all, sites like Grok can be forced to change, even if it takes an agrivating amount of female willpower. You can also become a member of groups such as the Coalition for Sustainable AI or the Climate Justice Alliance, to fight against these harmful practices. And, if it helps you to feel powerful, try taking a break from AI. Use it less or not at all. I’m not demonising you for utilising it as it’s a part of our society whether we like it or not, but I do find that denouncing it makes me feel I have some power over the situation.
In the meantime, sign petitions, go to protests and put up a fight! 100 angry feminists are way more powerful than a loser with his laptop.
