Is there a word for when you are in a rage and in despair? Respair? Dage? Cause whatever that is - I am both in rage and despair as a woman who works in both politics and technology over the latest example of how the media treats powerful women; in this case Georgie Purcell, member of the Legislative Council for Northern Victoria. If we really want to change things and enable women to fully participate in societyincluding all levels of democracy- let’s start with misogyny, not technology.

Georgie Purcell, member of the Legislative Council for Northern Victoria and member of the Animal Justice Party found out that a news segment broadcast by Channel 9 on Monday contained adigitally altered image of her. As well as resizing an image they randomly took from the internet (which would most likely be a breach of copyright against whoever took the photo), they also gave her bigger boobs and a crop top. Then The Australian added to the veritable bacchanalia of misogyny by mentioning the MLC was a former stripper.

Did you vomit in your mouth? I did.

Only, it gets worse.

Channel 9 news director, Hugh Nailon, released a statement blaming the deliberate distortion of Ms Purcell’s image onautomation by Photoshop.

He said, “Our graphics department sourced an online image of Georgie to use in our story on duck hunting. As is common practice, the image was resized to fit our specs.”

Adobe, the creators of Photoshop software, promptly refuted this and said their AI generative function still requires human intervention’. What next Channel 9? The dog ate your homework?

If you are getting the feeling that the Australian media landscape is filled with white middle-aged men who peaked in primary school, stealing ciggies and wanking over Playboy out the back of the bike shed -join the club.

Georgie Purcell is an amazing woman. At 31, she iscurrentlythe youngest person in the Victorian Parliament and the only elected member of the Animal Justice Party (AJP) in the stateafter the 2022 election. She started in politics at the age of 26 and in a few short years, she became the Chief of Staff to the first AJP MP for Victoria,Andy Meddick,and has worked tirelessly to stop the repulsive Victorian sport of duck hunting. Thats the reason she was in the news in the first place, but the misogynybecame the story, instead of animal cruelty.

Everything that I have observed of Ms Purcell in politics tells me that she is a pragmatic, thoughtful and informed woman who deserves her place in Victoria’s legislature. We needmore people like her inpolitics rather than less.

As a woman running an AI tech political data start-up, I can confidently tell you that AI cannot do anything unless it is trained by a human to do what it wants to do. AI is a tool used by its human masters. A hammer is a tool. It can be used to drive a nail, it can also be used to kill someone.

Self-aware AI is on its way - but still it needs to be told what to do. Sure, it can do things faster and sometimes better - but it is beholden to human trainers. Unless we address the culture of the way women’s bodies are viewed and controlled by the media and afford everyone the respect they deserve as a function of their humanity - this is a zero sum game. It wasn’t AI that chose the random image from the internet (instead of going to the AJP website, or the Victorian Parliamentary website for an official image) to use and then write the slut shaming headline in The Australian. It was humans.

If we really want to change things and enable women to fully participate in societyincluding all levels of democracy- let’s start with misogyny, not technology. We need more powerful women like Ms Purcell leading the charge for the society we want to see.