I have the honour to speak on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

Artificial Intelligence is a key technology of our century. It has potential to leverage economies, provide new empowering tools, and help close the global digital divide.  However, the misuse of AI can also bring risks for the promotion and protection of human rights, such as , privacy, equality, non-discrimination and freedom of expression to name a few. It is crucial that AI systems are designed, developed and used in a way that applies a human rights-based approach, promotes gender equality and does not perpetuate existing biases, stereotypes and discrimination against women and girls. The European Union is committed to leveraging AI to advance gender equality.

The new European AI Act, and its embedded human rights-based approach, is the world’s first comprehensive AI law with the aim of addressing risks to health, safety and human rights. In this context, it is important to promote gender equality by recognising the pervasiveness of gender biases and to tackle technology-facilitated sexual and gender-based violence.

An important part of the soon to be adopted EU Directive on Violence against Women and Domestic Violence is the criminalisation of certain forms of cyber-violence against women. Regarding AI specifically, this Directive criminalises the non-consensual production of AI-generated or manipulated material depicting a person engaged in sexually explicit activities (more commonly known as “deepfakes”).

Further, to bridge the digital gender gap, the EU has introduced several initiatives to increase female participation in the ICT sector. The digital sector cannot be developed in an inclusive, efficient and sustainable way without including women and girls. This is why the EU’s Digital Decade Policy Programme aims to double the number of ICT professionals from 9 to 20 million, with gender balance, while empowering female graduates in STEM subjects.

With initiatives such as “Girls Go Circular”, part of the EU Commission’s Digital Education Action Plan, the EU intends to attract more girls and young women to pursue ICT professions, thereby contributing to improved gender balance in such professions. The EU Code Week is another example of how the EU mainstreams coding and digital literacy among young people to provide equal opportunities in the ICT sector from a young age onwards. Additionally, at the United Nations, the EU and many of its Member States collaborate in organizing or sponsoring the annual celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on 11 February, with shared objectives.  In all these frameworks, it is important to address and respond to gender stereotypes in male or female-dominated sectors in order to avoid a digital gender gap in the future.

AI offers tremendous opportunities. However, the risks must be prevented and mitigated throughout the whole life cycle of AI. The development of a digital world , based on human rights, with shared and safe standards requires common effort and work to ensure that it benefits all of us.

Thank you.