Gender and the Machine: Trans Tech, Emotion and AI
Overview
What are trans technologies, and how are they shaped by the political economy of tech? How is emotion AI being used to shape the workplace, and whose perspectives are represented within these technologies?
Join us for this afternoon of events tackling entanglements of gender, marginalisation and emotion across tech and AI, from design to their impact on work, health and everyday life.
Gender and the Machine features Dr. Oliver Haimson (University of Michigan, author of Trans Technologies), Dr. Nazanin Andalibi (University of Michigan, critical scholar of emotional AI) and Alice Ross (University of Edinburgh, Doctoral Researcher). The event concludes with a networking reception where the audience can chat with the speakers and meet others interested in this work.
About the speakers:
Nazanin Andalibi
Nazanin Andalibi is an associate professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in the United States. As a social computing, human-computer interaction (HCI), and critical data studies scholar, her research examines how marginality is experienced, enacted, facilitated, or disrupted in and as mediated through sociotechnical systems such as artificial intelligence and social media.
Oliver Haimson
Oliver Haimson is an Associate Professor at University of Michigan School of Information and author of Trans Technologies (MIT Press 2025). His research examines how marginalized individuals and communities, especially trans and queer people, use social technologies and envision future technologies.
Alice Ross
Alice Ross is a PhD researcher in the School of Informatics in Edinburgh, looking at the politics and ethics of speech technology (and its applications) through feminist and anarchist lenses, with a focus on values of autonomy, accessibility and sustainability. Her research examines how attitudes and ideologies inform design decisions in speech technology. Alice is particularly interested in what we stand to gain and lose in adopting new technologies: asking, who is empowered? And who is left out or disenfranchised? Their recent publications include ‘Conveying gender through speech: insights from trans men’, and ‘Beyond the binary: limitations and possibilities of gender-related speech technology research’.
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Highlights
- 4 hours 30 minutes
- In person
Location
Room LG.19, Business School, The University of Edinburgh
29 Buccleuch Place
Edinburgh EH8 9JS United Kingdom
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Emotion AI: Utopian Promises, Dystopian Realities
Emotion AI refers to technologies that claim to algorithmically recognize, detect, predict, and infer emotions, emotional states, moods, and even mental health status using a wide range of input data. While emotion AI is critiqued for associated scientific validity, bias, and surveillance concerns, it continues to be patented, developed, and used without public debate, resistance, or regulation (particularly in the United States). In this talk, Nazanin Andalibi highlights some of her research group’s work focusing on the workplace to discuss: 1) how emotion AI technologies are conceived of by their inventors and what values are embedded in their design, and 2) the perspectives of the humans who produce the data that make emotion AI possible, and whose experiences are shaped by these technologies: data subjects. Andalibi argues that emotion AI is not just technical, it it is sociotechnical, political, and enacts/shifts power.
Fireside panel with Dr Andalibi and Dr Haimson, chaired by Alice Ross
This conversation will discuss the realities of doing gender, emotion and AI work and offer practical guidance on crafting a career in academic and professional spaces.
Monetizing Trans Technologies: Trans Capitalism, Investment Funding, Mutual AI
In this talk, drawing from a chapter of my new book Trans Technologies (MIT Press, 2025), I will discuss the political economy of trans technologies. Through telling the story of Euphoria.LGBT, a venture-capital-funded suite of trans apps, I show how trans technologies are not always well-aligned with trans needs, even when they are created by trans people. While some trans technology creators rely on venture capital and capitalist systems, others are more grounded in community and mutual aid. I will describe how different financial orientations amplify or limit trans technologies’ impact and potential: underresourced trans technologies often have more freedom to pursue their goals but also suffer from limited scope and overwork, while well-funded technologies often face different limits related to funders’ values. I discuss trans capitalism, which describes how trans identities are increasingly monetized, commodified, and marketed to.
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