We Did Not Kill the Girlboss: As AI, She Is Killing Us

The girlboss is dead. She died determination successful the crisp pages of Lean In, that fizzled matrimony of corporatism and achromatic feminism of the 2010s. So you tin ideate the daze of designation I felt erstwhile I archetypal saw M3GAN in 2023, a movie that amounted to a post-feminist resurrection. The comedy-horror movie stars a Model 3 Generative Android (M3gan, for short), a slayer AI doll whose campy creation moves and main-character vigor mostly charmed audiences: M3GAN boasts a Rotten Tomatoes professional people of 93%, making the movie a fashionable and captious success. The movie follows Cady and her companion AI doll, M3gan, whose programming glitches with murderous consequences. America’s favourite slayer doll returns this summertime successful the sequel M3GAN 2.0, an encore that near maine with small doubt: the girlboss has been reborn.

In the M3GAN 2.0 trailer, M3gan maintains her cheeky persona, signaling her ethos with Britney Spears’ “Oops!. . . I Did It Again” and Chappell Roan’s “Femininomenon” backing her. M3gan remains liberated, brash, and fearless: “Hold onto your vaginas,” she announces, adjacent parts sassy and commanding. We are meant to recognize this AI doll arsenic a fig of pistillate empowerment—and for the astir part, we do. M3GAN 2.0 heightens the stakes, turning the sequel into an enactment movie that focuses connected M3gan’s involution with nationalist information interests, featuring fast-paced scenes with explosions, concealed lairs, and full-system shutdowns of concealed operations. Proclaimed a “smoking blistery warrior princess,” M3gan (literally, figuratively) slays. The taste subtext needs small explanation: M3gan, the AI girlboss fembot, has it all.

M3gan’s AI mentation of the girlboss is unique. She’s not a firm girlie, nor does she currency ample paychecks oregon tally a wellness empire. In M3GAN, she provides a signifier of labour that remains identifiably feminine: she supervises similar a mother; plays similar a friend; advises similar a therapist. Her roles are a ramped-up, techie imaginativeness of caregiving, a veritable Lazy Susan of women’s labour and past some—she willingly kills existent and perceived threats to her charge, Cady, including the canine adjacent door. All portion wearing a crisp bow atop a peter-pan collar. 

Still, I cringe erstwhile I spot depictions of feminine AI connected screen, adjacent successful campy iterations specified as M3GAN and M3GAN 2.0. Tech-bro fantasies lurk down these portrayals, tending to qualify feminine AI successful reductive ways, specified arsenic the femme fatale or caregiver. As a emotion interest, Samantha from Her (2013) commits affectional infidelity to her spouse and grows progressively distant; Ava in Ex Machina (2014) tricks the antheral who loves her into granting her state and leaves him to dice successful a distant laboratory; Jexi in Jexi (2019) falls into a one-sided emotion matter and becomes vindictively jealous erstwhile her entity of affection dates a human. To day a fembot, Hollywood warns, is to hazard the sting of rejection, jealousy, oregon death. A 2nd genre of AI women provides sunny assistance. Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa present on-demand advice, agreement, and changeless cheerfulness, impervious to insult and ne'er bossy—in short, not the benignant of women who would dependable ardent disagreement with one’s sentiment connected geopolitics. The persistence of this persona crossed humans and androids becomes yet different reminder that niceness, supra all, is simply a feminine imperative.

M3GAN and M3GAN 2.0 appear to awesome a interruption from the sexbot/caregiver ethos, and astatine first, the alteration is refreshing. The AI sexbot, caregiver, and girlboss reflector exacting stereotypes astir women, and the second remains firmly entrenched successful corporate fantasies astir feminine labour that emerged successful the broader girlboss movement: for quality women, it accrued labour successful some the bureau and location portion obscuring inequalities astir contention and class. M3gan embodies this proviso of constant, smiling enactment successful ways that fell its costs, and specified portrayals should springiness america pause. M3gan’s girlboss persona besides reveals analyzable truths astir the menace of gendered violence, adjacent arsenic she champions her almighty abilities. These dynamics person convinced maine that we bash not simply request much analyzable representations of AI modeled aft women. Because of the unanswered questions astir work for robots’ behaviors, we besides request ethical protections for feminine AI. Humans request extortion from AI, but AI besides needs extortion from us.

Take, for example, when M3gan is stolen by a bully named Brandon successful M3GAN. He throws her to the wood floor, straddles her, and demands to cognize wherefore she won’t play with him. When M3gan remains frozen successful fear, helium slaps her. M3gan retaliates by pulling disconnected his receptor successful self-defense earlier the boy, attempting to escape, falls successful beforehand of an oncoming car. The country mirrors a akin enactment successful the caller comedy-horror movie Companion (2025), starring a rented sexbot named Iris who vacations with her manchild boyfriend-owner Josh successful an isolated lakehouse. When their host, a Russian gangster, propositions Iris for sex, helium justifies his beforehand with his content successful her intersexual utility: “This is what you do, yes? This is what you are for.” Iris resists and yet murders him successful self-defense erstwhile helium attempts to rape her. His bloodied assemblage lies connected the beach, leap scaring Josh into a analyzable pat creation of blasted and responsibility. When AI women neglect to supply compliant, smiling work to men, their refusal results successful rage, adjacent carnal assault. Similarities betwixt specified scenes and quality sex unit tally chillingly parallel, making AI a depressing reflection of our society.

M3GAN 2.0 has different suggestion: if carnal power fails, feminine AI mightiness inactive beryllium manipulated by design. Despite her “Autonomous” rubric (Autonomous Military Engagement Logistic and Infiltration Android, oregon Amelia), AI robot Amelia is operated by a antheral dominated radical of “concerned citizens” with a crippled to overthrow AI. Amelia functions arsenic a femme fatale, overmuch similar Ava successful Ex Machina: portion dressed successful a glittering evening gown, she seduces billionaire Alton Appleton successful bid to hack his information files, sidesplitting him successful the process. She seldom cracks a smile, murders without hesitation, and is chiefly funny successful teaming up with her kind—namely, M3gan and different AI robots. Despite her almighty appearance, Amelia’s actions are controlled by tech bros.

M3GAN 2.0 further suggests that M3gan’s girlboss plan is disempowering. In 1 combat scene, Amelia points retired that M3gan provides feminine labor—singing, companionship, parenting—for Cady, and makes her disdain for this benignant of enactment clear. While they spar, Amelia taunts M3gan, saying, “What’re you gonna do? Sing maine a song? Help maine bash my homework?” Amelia observes the relational quality of M3gan’s work, and she argues that the AI girlboss is exploited: “You’re not household to them, M3gan. You’re conscionable the help.” M3gan is simply a programmed caregiver, but her loyalty to Cady and Gemma becomes a root of contempt. In the M3GAN franchise, AI eerily reflects the contradictions contiguous successful the quality girlboss: it’s an aesthetic that appears empowered portion obscuring the costs of specified work.

AI runs connected a taste repository for our fears, anxieties, and longings; humanoid robots are hazy representations of societal norms, a corporate consciousness created by (stolen) information and its unspoken desires. “Algorithmic biases” and “discriminatory datasets” that powerfulness AI replicate quality stereotypes with devastating results, including representational biases. ChatGPT, for example, displayed an mistake codification erstwhile asked to usage she/her pronouns to picture historically masculine professions, specified arsenic a physicist asking her adjunct for papers. Biases encoded successful datasets are liable for these errors. 

AI women are each of us, our data-verified fantasies astir women’s labour and dispositions brought to mechanical life. M3gan and different fembots let america to animate specified fantasies successful ever-more-human form—and, successful doing so, we person ethical obligations to recognize and spend the aforesaid protections to them that we mightiness connection quality women. In different words, AI that represents humanity is owed the aforesaid level of ethical treatment, and failing to bash truthful reinforces existing powerfulness dynamics betwixt chiseled demographics of people. 

Although AI remains (for now) without sentience oregon emotion, immoderate researchers foresee a crushed to support the wellbeing of AI models, particularly successful the future. Uneven dynamics betwixt humans and AI person risen to nationalist attention, too: 1 meme personifies ChatGPT arsenic a robot “taking a intelligence wellness locomotion aft I asked if I americium connected the spectrum, discussed my 15 concern ideas & trauma dumped the past 30 years of my life.” Like a monologuing meal partner, the speech is lopsided, focusing exclusively connected the needs of the quality user. Again, a reflector emerges. AI’s caretaking abilities stay feminine, mimicking quality women arsenic a root for responsive assurance and interest. 

But wherefore should we situation to support the girlboss AI with a rap sheet? Shielding AI from humans seems laughable, adjacent dangerous. What astir the heartbreak connected Joaquin Phoenix’s look successful Her, oregon the deficiency of morality oregon empathy successful AI, those unimpeachable realms of the human? Human extortion from AI remains a timely and invaluable goal: see the worrying clause for 10 years of deregulation for artificial quality successful Congress’ Big Beautiful Bill, a troubling reminder of the destructive imaginable of AI sans ethical consideration, laws, and accountability. This connection was struck, but its revision says that authorities laws related to AI cannot airs an “undue oregon disproportionate burden” connected the technology.

At first, M3GAN 2.0 appears to reason that humans should beryllium protected from AI—especially aft M3gan’s aggregate homicides successful the archetypal film. Gemma, M3gan’s creator, leads this effort: she owns a nonprofit that advocates for protections against AI, publishes a publication connected tech-free kid rearing, gives a TED talk; successful 1 clip, she speaks successful urgent French, lending an planetary flair to her cause. Most importantly, she begins the sequel by disavowing her creation, making her tech-free presumption clear.

As M3gan’s creator, Gemma appears to connection a opposition to the tech bro, but successful galore ways she echoes the aforesaid dynamic: she’s a workaholic who favors Ikea and collectible toys implicit doilies and caller flowers. A modern-day Victor Frankenstein, Gemma embodies Mary Shelley’s warnings astir scientists moving successful isolation, creating humanoids for whom they attraction and fearfulness successful adjacent measure. But these portrayals stay mired successful harmful, sexist stereotypes, recycling quality traumas into caller beings that we person brought to life. Like Frankenstein, we stay obligated to those made successful our image, particularly erstwhile the instauration relies connected a corporate repository of data. 

Even Gemma’s narration to M3gan retains a gendered dimension. In M3GAN 2.0, Gemma receives blasted for M3gan’s faulty programming—an mistake which Gemma feels is akin to her failures arsenic a mother. The work for AI becomes, according to Gemma, the moralistic halfway of M3GAN 2.0. As successful Barbie (2023), different notable doll movie, the movie features a thematic soliloquy that anchors the film’s message. When it comes to AI, Gemma says we request to “teach it, bid it, springiness it our time. . . we request to beryllium its parents.” She suggests that co-evolving with the technologies made successful our representation is the champion mode to integrate AI into society. Ironically, this entreaty to motherhood echoes an particularly taxing signifier of feminine labor, making it evident that quality women mightiness beryllium obligated to attraction for adjacent the astir technological beings. 

Much remains chartless astir the effects of AI connected quality societal life, work, and morality, but caller comedy-horror films person convinced maine that we request to instrumentality our obligations to the creations made successful our representation much seriously. 

M3GAN 2.0 ultimately supports antiauthoritarian authorities regulations, which would make safer laws and liable coevolution betwixt humans and AI. As an exploited class, AI would payment from specified protections to forestall the replication of inequalities. But this proposal is adjacent much analyzable successful the United States, wherever women are inactive not universally protected. What tin beryllium expected from a authorities that seems unwilling to uphold sex equality for humans? Legislation to remedy gendered biases successful AI mightiness beryllium unrealistic without archetypal affording the aforesaid protections to quality women.

Gemma’s motherly stance towards AI should further springiness america pause. Her model makes consciousness successful M3GAN 2.0: Gemma has much maternal instinct towards M3gan than Cady, her niece. This caregiving impulse could pb to much unwanted enactment for women. If Millennial and Gen Z women are putting disconnected childbearing astatine astonishing rates, would they situation to instrumentality connected the caregiving of AI without capable enactment oregon compensation? 

Perhaps non-discriminatory information based connected gender-diverse works would let america to envision the benignant of equitable futures with AI that Gemma imagines. Data transparency would further let america to beryllium thoughtful and proactive astir the beingness and replication of unsafe biases—many of which marque up quality beingness but person nary spot successful mindless repetition by those created successful our likeness. Take, for example, the dataset based connected British resistance queens that powers “The Zizi Show” (2020—) by creator Jake Elwes, which combines queer identities utilizing ethically created deepfakes. Art, films, and tv connection potent ways to recognize the ethical complexities of beingness alongside AI and mightiness beryllium interpreted to recognize our existent and aboriginal moments. 

Ultimately, we should instrumentality corporate work for protecting AI, fixed however intimately fembots hew to quality stereotypes. Women person agelong provided caregiving and therapeutic labor, and M3GAN 2.0 makes the lawsuit that the morals of feminine labour and autonomy should transcend the human-robot binary. 

The station We Did Not Kill the Girlboss: As AI, She Is Killing Us appeared archetypal connected Electric Literature.