The act of mansplaining is alive and well on social media.
Since what feels like the dawn of time, overconfident men have condescendingly explained how things work, even when they’re woefully wrong and unqualified.
Look no further than a baffling exchange on Bluesky after Meredith Whittaker, the president of encrypted chat platform Signal and chief advisor to the AI Now Institute, promised “no AI clutter, and no surveillance ads, whatever the rest of the industry does.”
It was a striking commitment, given the overall trajectory of the tech industry; Whittaker was responding to news that Meta-owned WhatsApp was pilfering personal data from Instagram and Facebook to pollute the platform with ads.
But it didn’t take long for the mansplaining to begin.
“Signal will [sic] some sort of [large language model] integration in it soon,” self-professed “tech geek” Bill Mitchell replied, a suggestion that was immediately shut down by Whittaker herself.
Mitchell dug in his heels, proclaiming that it’s only a matter of time, and asserting that “engineers have already began laying out the ground work” for integrating AI chatbot tech on Signal.
Many other users quickly came to Whittaker’s defense.
“Are you suggesting that you, random dipshit on the Internet, have a better view into Signal’s product roadmap than the actual president of Signal?” asked one perplexed Bluesky user.
Suddenly, Mitchell became the victim, accusing the user of “name calling” and becoming “hostile.”
“So yes, I do think I have a better insight than the president of the company,” Mitchell mansplained further. “I’ll wait while you try to remind me that Signal is non-profit, and I retort with something clever like ‘And how do you developers feed themselves.'”
Bystanders were left shaking their heads.
“Bill, this is the kind of mansplaining audacity that’s preserved in museums for future generations to learn from as a cautionary tale,” data journalist and consultant Faine Greenwood chimed in.
The exchange highlights how sexism still proliferates, particularly in a field dominated by men. According to a November report by global recruiting and talent company Randstad, only 29 percent of the AI-skilled workforce are women. A separate analysis found that women comprise only 22 percent of AI talent globally.
Worse yet, AI technology itself could widen the gender gap even further. Earlier this year, the United Nations’ International Labour Organization found that jobs traditionally done by women are more vulnerable to the impact of AI.
Meanwhile, on social media, the second election of Donald Trump was followed by a massive surge in sexist attacks on women, researchers have found. The rise of far-right conservatism has driven a culture of misogyny and sexism, a worrying reversal that’s rapidly undoing years of progress.
In short, it’s no wonder men are willing to mansplain AI policies to the literal president of a company.
“Ah, to have the confidence of a mediocre white man,” one Bluesky user joked.
More on AI and women: AI Is Replacing Women’s Jobs Specifically
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