Gender in the Machine: The Politics of Gender in National Strategies on Artificial Intelligence

As Artificial intelligence (AI) has become more prevalent in global politics, thanks in part to the advent of Generative AI, how are states framing issues of gender, ethics, and equality in their national strategies on artificial intelligence? That is the central research question addressed in this paper, which uses text analysis to ascertain how gender—intersected with race and class—is engaged in countries’ plans for the development of AI. Nearly 70 countries already have national strategies, and more are developing them every year. Given what we know about the gender and racial biases baked into the algorithms and development of big data, how do states address further entrenchment of already existing inequalities through AI? And how do they envision that AI can actually decrease said inequalities? By analyzing national strategies, we can understand how states are approaching gender in the development of AI technologies and compare them to important global standards on AI to ascertain if states are ‘doing enough’ about gender (in)equality in the development of AI. Using a feminist lens, one can also interrogate the gender = women narrative pervasive in gender equality policies that are also prevalent in National Strategies on AI.