This project is a first prototype of a reporting and guidance information system for Digital Gender-Based Violence (DBGV) situations in Chile. The main objective is the design and development of a conversational agent (chatbot type) using feminist principles (Guerrero, 2022, Fair+ Latinoamérica 2022) that consider ethical issues and prioritize the needs and context of women who experience these situations daily while exercising their right to freedom of expression and opinion on social networking platforms, particularly women with a public voice (activists, academics, women involved in politics, among others).
Sof+IA is designed to assist individuals in reporting incidents of Digital Gender-Based Violence and to provide guidance on various related topics, such as how to report abuse on social media, how to file a police report, and how to enhance personal digital security. In Chile, Digital Gender-Based Violence is not officially recognized as a crime, which means the scale of this issue is largely unknown. We developed Sof+IA to begin documenting these cases and to use this data for advocacy and awareness.
The development of Sof+IA was guided by feminist principles of Artificial Intelligence. These principles emphasize collaboration, participation, autonomy, community development, situated knowledge, and the use of open and free code. We ensured that the entire process involved all relevant stakeholders. In the initial stage, we conducted interviews with survivors and feminist activists to identify key needs. In the second stage, we held workshops with participants to collaboratively build the chatbot’s conversational framework.
Project steps
User research
Journey map
Conversational workflow
Workshops
1- We randomly assigned the participants to survivors or agents.
2- Separately we presented the instructions for both groups (agents had a kit)
3- We used the chat available in Etherpad and sent the links to the participants.
4- They had 15 minutes to report a situation (survivors could use their own story or make up one) and the agents use the kit to guide them into taking action.
5- Finally, each survivors evaluated their agent with an anonymous form.
