In 2024, Equinet will organise two webinars aimed at Experts from Equinet’s Artificial Intelligence Working Group and the Gender Equality Working Group, as well as other interested staff of Equality Bodies.
The webinars will take place online on
- 14 June 2024 – Artificial Intelligence & Intersectionality: How to Prevent and Counter Discrimination.
- 20 September 2024 – A Gender Perspective on Employment in the Age of AI.
Background
Throughout 2024, Equinet is set to further enhance members’ expertise and foster connections with external stakeholders on the topic of Artificial Intelligence and equality. This will revolve around exploring the influence of diverse digital automation methods, notably AI systems, on the realms of equality and non-discrimination, as well as examining the pivotal role played by Equality Bodies. In particular, Equinet will focus on the impact of Artificial Intelligence on gender equality and discrimination based on the ground of gender. These two webinars are aimed at strengthening the capacity of Equality Bodies to monitor and address the impact of AI systems on gender equality.
First webinar “Artificial Intelligence & Intersectionality: How to Prevent and Counter Discrimination”.
Objective
This webinar will examine the concept of algorithmic intersectional discrimination and clarify its relevance concerning the impact of AI on gender equality. Participants will also be introduced to concrete possibilities under existing law for addressing AI-enabled intersectional violations of equality.
Agenda
15:00 – 15:05 Welcoming Remarks
- Marta Pompili, Policy Officer, Equinet
- Milla Vidina, Senior Policy Officer, Equinet
15:05 – 15:35 When algorithms discriminate at the intersections: examining the intersectional gendered impact of AI
This session explores and maps various ways in which AI systems may implicate intersectional forms of gender-related discrimination, highlighting specific case studies. It will explain the concept of intersectional discrimination from an interdisciplinary perspective and clarify its enhanced relevance in the context of AI systems. The session will also explore why AI technologies could lead to intersectional discrimination and identify possible drivers and promising good practices.
- Dr. Kerry McInerney (née Mackereth), Senior Research Fellow at the Cambridge University Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence and Research Fellow at the AI NOW Institute
Q&A (10 minutes) Moderator: Milla Vidina
15:35 – 16:05 Legal responses to intersectional inequality in the algorithmic age: opportunities for improving the protection offered by Equality Bodies
This session will provide a general overview of various legal tools for addressing algorithmic intersectional discrimination and clarify and assess their relevance. The discussion will be complemented with a more in-depth analysis of specific legal instruments and, as relevant, European case- law which Equality Bodies could use in their legal casework. Particular attention will be given to possibilities for enhancing transparency through easing the reversal of the burden of proof and overcoming the limitations of the grounds-based approach.
- Raphaële Xenidis, Assistant Professor in European Law, Sciences Po
Q&A (10 minutes) Moderator: Milla Vidina
16:05 – 16:55 Artificial Intelligence & intersectionality: an evolving agenda
This session aims to facilitate an interactive conversation between speakers and participants, creating an opportunity to raise new questions and delve more in-depth into aspects mentioned in preceding sessions. Participants will be asked to submit questions before the webinar, which the speakers will address in an interview-style exchange.
- Discussion panel (speakers)
16:55 – 17:00 Closing remarks
- Valérie Fontaine, AI Working Group Moderator
- Aleksandra Szczerba, Gender Equality Working Group Moderator
Second webinar “A Gender Perspective on Employment in the Age of AI”.
Objective
This webinar aims to explore the gender and intersectional dimensions of AI’s impact on the workplace and clarify the complex interaction between AI technologies and existing drivers of gender inequalities at the workplace.
Agenda
10:00 – 10:05 Welcoming remarks
- Marta Pompili, Policy Officer, Equinet
10:05 – 10:35 A gender perspective on artificial intelligence and jobs: A vicious cycle of digital inequality?
This session maps and analyses the multiple and diverse ways in which AI technologies impact gender equality at the workplace. It will also critically examine the interplay between gender stereotypes and gendered work segregation, on one hand, and digital automation technologies, including AI, on the other hand.
- Sabine T. Koeszegi, Professor, Technical University of Vienna
Q&A (10 minutes) Moderator: Aleksandra Szczerba, Gender Equality Working Group Moderator
10:35 – 11:05 Regulating AI at the Workplace: opportunities for strengthening equality protection through the new EU Platform Work Directive
This session will introduce participants to the EU Platform Work Directive, explaining its underlying logic and structure and highlighting complementarities with the EU AI Act. The main focus will be the Directive’s implications for enhancing the legal protection of platform workers at risk of gender-based discrimination.
- Lucie Susova, Advisor and Youth Officer, ETUC
Q&A (10 minutes) Moderator: Valérie Fontaine, AI Working Group Moderator
11:05 – 11:35 Daring Goliath: Civil Society challenging gender bias in Facebook’s targeted job advertising algorithms
This session showcases a good practice example on (1) how civil society, mobilizing across borders and undertaking concerted action, can challenge social network algorithms that reproduce and reinforce gender stereotypes; and (2) how civil society can forge strategic alliances with Equality Bodies to legally contest algorithmic discrimination. In June 2023, a Global Witness and women’s rights organisations in France and the Netherlands filed complaints against Meta to the French Defenseur des droits and the Dutch Institute of Human Rights, as research by Global Witness brough evidence that gender discrimination is inherent to Facebook’s job adverts function.
- Berty Bonnor, Bureau Clara Wichmann
Q&A (10 minutes) Moderator: Milla Vidina, Artificial Intelligence Working Group Coordinator
11:35 – 11:55 Can the use of AI in employment foster gender equality? The conversation continues.
This session features an open discussion between speakers and participants, creating an opportunity to raise new questions and delve more in-depth into aspects mentioned in preceding sessions. The Standford University AI Index Report highlights that in 2023, several studies assessed AI’s impact on labor, suggesting that AI enables workers to complete tasks more quickly and to improve the quality of their output. According to the Report, these studies also demonstrated AI’s potential to bridge the skill gap between low- and high-skilled workers. In light of these and other findings, the discussion will explore AI’s potential to serve as an “equalizer,” holding the potential to countervail and redressing gender power imbalances deeply rooted in the traditional, “pre-AI” labor market.
Moderators: Milla Vidina, Marta Pompili, Equinet
11:55 – 12:00 Closing remarks
- Milla Vidina, Senior Policy Officer, Equinet
Resources
- Concept note and agenda of the first webinar “Artificial Intelligence & Intersectionality: How to Prevent and Counter Discrimination”
- “When algorithms discriminate at the intersections: examining the intersectional gendered impact of AI” by Dr. Kerry McInerney (née Mackereth), Senior Research Fellow at the Cambridge University Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence and Research Fellow at the AI NOW Institute
- “Legal responses to intersectional inequality in the algorithmic age: opportunities for improving the protection offered by Equality Bodies” by Raphaële Xenidis, Assistant Professor in European Law, Sciences Po
- Equinet Directive Summary. Platform Work Directive
- Download the accessible versine of the Equinet Directive Summary in Word Format
For further information, contact Milla Vidina (milla.vidina@equineteurope.org) and Marta Pompili (marta.pompili@equineteurope.org).