How AI is exacerbating technology-facilitated violence against women and girls

Rapid technological change has created new risks for violence against women and girls (VAWG), with emerging forms of technology-facilitated abuse increasing in scale, speed, and severity. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has intensified this landscape, enabling deepfakes, disinformation, automated harassment, impersonation, sextortion, and data-driven stalking at unprecedented levels. These harms disproportionately affect women and girls, particularly those in public life, and often reinforce existing inequalities, gender stereotypes, and structural discrimination.

This paper, developed under UN Women's ACT to End Violence against Women Programme, funded by the European Union, provides a comprehensive analysis of how AI is amplifying technology-facilitated VAWG and examines the unique legal, ethical, and accountability challenges arising from rapidly evolving digital tools. It draws on global evidence, case studies, emerging data, and technical analysis to map the ways AI-driven tools are intensifying common forms of online abuse, including deepfake pornography, automated hate speech, impersonation, doxing, and coordinated digital attacks.

The paper also outlines promising practices and innovative uses of AI for prevention and response, highlighting emerging feminist AI models, survivor-centred chatbots, real-time detection tools, and global normative developments such as the UN High-Level Advisory Body on AI and the Global Digital Compact.

It provides concrete recommendations for governments, regulators, platforms, civil society, and the private sector, calling for safety-by-design, accountability for digital intermediaries, stronger legal safeguards, and coordinated international action to ensure AI technologies uphold women's rights, safety, and autonomy.

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