Apps for Matriarchy
Apps for Matriarchy — June 6th: ¾ Ethical AI
Is there a way to use AI without propping up the patriarchy?
That's the question this month. No live building this time — just our voices, an honest reckoning, and a decision that will shape what Apps for Matriarchy becomes next.
The inconvenient truth
I just got back from The Podcast Show in London. The conference exposed something I'd been avoiding: I've been a hypocrite. Every dollar I give OpenAI, Anthropic, and the rest is a dollar propping up the patriarchy.
And AI isn't going anywhere. One founder I sat with 1-on-1 is generating 10,000 podcast episodes weekly. There will be more like her.
It's like cars. Cars reshaped our cities and broke our communities. I hate them for that. I also drive one.
But unlike cars, AI is still infrastructure in its infancy. Right now it's malleable. It can be a technology for the People — or against us. And without your voice, it stays a mess.
Why ¾, not fully ethical?
Open source models are now beating the big tech bros — but those models are trained by China (also patriarchal), on hardware most people can't access, produced by companies that are cogs in the same machine. ¾ is the upper limit I can see right now. This session is where we figure out if that's enough — or if we walk away entirely.
What you'll leave with
A concrete map of which AI alternatives exist outside the Big Tech patriarchy machine — and which only claim to be
Insights from The Podcast Show on where AI is about to invade next
A summary from The Chalice and the Blade — Riane Eisler's work on pre-patriarchal societies — and what it tells us about the systems we build now
Your voice on the record about how Apps for Matriarchy uses AI tools going forward
This isn't a presentation. Your input here literally decides the future of this space.
Format (1 hour)
15 min — Land Acknowledgement + introductions + opening on our individual understandings of Matriarchy
10 min — What I learned at The Podcast Show + summary from The Chalice and the Blade
30 min — Open conversation: where do you stand with AI and ethics? Is ethical use possible, or does it have no place at all?
5 min — Closing + what this means for future sessions
Bonus: 20 min extra hang for a slow wind-down
Last month
We talked about Matriarchies, shifted people's perspectives on AI, and built two things: a "food pantry" neighbourhood share app, and Weave — an app that turns free-flowing conversations and podcasts into organized book chapters.
Some other ideas raised: an online community notice board that posts to mainstream socials to help people transition off them. A non-addictive social platform. An anonymous, searchable database for gender-based violence.
A note on size
I'm keeping this session to 8 people max. Any bigger and it stops being a conversation and starts being a presentation — and that's not what this is.
With love, Anton