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Courtney Jones Posts

What’s Missing From the Conversation on AI? Women.

Unless you’ve been living an entirely disconnected life for the past few years, you will have heard of large language model applications like ChatGPT. There is no doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming increasingly intelligent. However, there is something we have been leaving entirely out of the conversation – the impact of this technology on women. You may have already heard of deepfake technology – that which allows someone to create false videos of anyone, but mostly targets celebrities and politicians. This same technology can be used to create deepfake pornography, and make it appear as though a particular woman has participated in a pornographic film – even though she never has. There is another type of similar technology which aims to allow…

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Thoughts on International Women’s Day

Given that the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is #DigitAll: Innovation and technology for gender equality, it only seems fitting that I’m spending my time attending sessions online at the 67th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. As I write this, I’m listening to a parallel event conversation circle on freedom of opinion and expression. Many of the discussions are centred on whether online social platforms allow women to freely express ourselves, or whether these platforms are providing safe online spaces for women. The overwhelming response is that no, they don’t. I’ve heard from countless women today mentioning that the second they started making political points online, whether they were feminist, anti-racist, pro gay rights, etc., they started to receive online…

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Finding Silence | Being Mindful

I recently listened to an episode of The Happiness Lab podcast about how our lives are currently filled with noise. This got me thinking about all the noise I encounter day-to-day, and how I never take a few minutes to just appreciate silence. During the Happiness Lab interview, the host and guest discussed how reducing the noise, both visual and audio, that we experience can be so beneficial to us. After hearing these discussions, I decided I would try to incorporate more silence into each day, and to do so mindfully. Usually on my way to class or browsing through the aisles of the grocery shop on my way home, I would have my headphones in and listen to a podcast or audiobook. But, I…

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Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

I needed a minute before sitting down to write about Roe v Wade. I’m not American, but watching the rights of women get rolled back, especially in a place that’s made a significant amount of progress over the last century, is surely upsetting to women around the world. If you haven’t already heard, Politico released a draft majority opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States which was said by Chief Justice Roberts to be an authentic draft which would see Roe v Wade overruled after nearly 50 years. It has been noted by many commentators that this does not criminalise abortion – it merely leaves it up to individual states to decide the law and which women have access to this essential medical…

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It’s Been A While

Welcome to the blog. It used to be full of posts – things related to politics and feminism, mostly. And then I deleted them all because I felt as though they weren’t good enough, and maybe some of them no longer reflected my views. (Don’t worry, I’m not speaking of the feminist ones. I am still very much a feminist). And then, an acquaintance I have on Facebook shared that she had started writing again, and wrote about how we don’t need to do things and make them perfect. If we enjoy it, we can do it for that purpose. So here I am, writing again. I’m not exactly sure what you’ll find here if you check back regularly. Maybe some creative writing, maybe some…

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