Gendering the Machine: A History of Feminist Artificial Intelligence

Apolline Taillandier

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a driving force in today’s technological advancement, permeating almost every aspect of modern society. Yet, the ways in which social and cultural dynamics—particularly gender—shape the development and application of these technologies often go unnoticed. Since the 1960s, feminist thinkers and scholars have brought a critical lens to the role that gender plays in AI and computer science. They have explored how AI systems can be influenced by gender stereotypes and how women and marginalized groups remain underrepresented in technology and scientific fields.

In my research project, I explore the history of gender roles in artificial intelligence. I trace the development and dissemination of feminist theories and critical approaches in AI and computer science research from the 1960s to the present. My focus is on AI and education projects in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France.

I am a political theorist and historian of political thought, with a special interest in liberalism, feminism, and technology. Currently, I work as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, in the Department of Politics and International Studies, as well as at Newnham College, University of Cambridge. Additionally, I am affiliated with the Center for Science and Thought at the University of Bonn. Previously, I had the privilege of working as a Doctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Sciences Po Center in Paris and conducting research as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. I was also a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh. Currently, I am writing my monograph on the history of transhumanism in the United States and Britain after World War II.

Articles in peer-reviewed journals

“Cosmos-politanism: Transhumanist Visions of World Order from the First World War to the Digital Age” (with Duncan Bell). Perspectives on Politics (accepted)

“‘Staring into the Singularity’ and Other Posthuman Tales: Transhumanist Stories of Future Change.” History and Theory 60, no. 2 (June 2021): 215–233. https://doi-org/10.1111/hith.12203.

Chapters in edited volumes

“Transhumanism as Ideology.” In Routledge Handbook of Ideology Analysis, edited by Juliette Faure, Mathieu Humphrey, and David Laycock. New York: Routledge, Forthcoming.

“AI in a Different Voice: Rethinking Computers, Learning and Gender Difference at MIT in the 1980s.” In Feminist AI: Critical Perspectives on Algorithms, Data, and Intelligent Machines, edited by Jude Browne, Stephen Cave, Eleanor Drage, and Kerry McInerney, 32–46. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192889898.003.0003.

“The Meanings of AI: A Cross-Cultural Comparison” (with Stephen Cave, Kanta Dihal, Thomasz Hollanek, Hirofumi Katsuno, Yang Liu, and Daniel White). In Imagining AI: How the World Sees Intelligent Machines, edited by Stephen Cave and Kanta Dihal, 16–36. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192865366.003.0002.