A new report provides the first comprehensive analysis of how AI chatbots are fueling violence against women and girls (VAWG) in dangerous new ways.
The report, co-authored by Professor Claire McGlynn from Durham Law School, shows how AI chatbots promote, enable, simulate and normalize violence against women and girls, highlighting gaps in law and policy.
inadequate regulation
This shows how platforms enable and encourage gender-based violence through deliberate design choices and failed safety mechanisms.
The authors make recommendations for reform of online safety law, criminal law, product safety law, and new AI laws.
Abuse by chatbots
The report found the following:
- AI chatbots are allowing role-playing of incest, child sexual abuse, and rape with few safeguards and risk normalizing and legitimizing this abuse.
- AI chatbots are creating new forms of violence and abuse, including chatbot abuse and simulation, that require urgent action.
- There is a high possibility that abusive behavior such as stalking will intensify due to detailed and individual guidance provided by AI chatbots, and criminal behavior will escalate.
- The design choices, policies, and governance failures of AI platforms encourage and enable violence against women and girls, and the harm is not just the result of user misuse.
- Existing regulations are woefully inadequate to prevent and combat chatbots – VAWG
- There is a surprising lack of research into how AI chatbots contribute to violence against women and girls, raising serious concerns about the evidence base for future AI regulation.
