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Women trying to succeed in Silicon Valley AI and effective altruist spaces are reporting feeling serious social pressure to attend sex parties - where people have reported being sexually assaulted, like below. Events like Aella’s “Slutcon,” which is happening again this weekend.

The bizarre culture that’s sprung up around Silicon Valley AI companies - which overlaps hugely with rationalist and effective altruist circles - appears to be seriously pressuring some women into attending sex parties for the sake of networking. This is, needless to say, horrifying.

“What I personally find so frustrating is no one is ever given an ounce of grace for the understandable ways these conversations might blur. Whereas, men who act poorly are given a delusional amount of cover & protection. They say illogical things and get polite responses.” - on sexism in AI spaces.

More comments from people in the Silicon Valley AI space on how centering group sex events in the scene is hostile to women:

Yes, Slutcon is real. And while there’s nothing wrong with this kind of event in perfect isolation, in the context of “women in Silicon Valley tech are reporting feeling serious social pressure to attend,” it becomes very gross. (BTW, Gretta is Eliezer Yudkowsky’s partner). slutcon.com

it’s also a shame in that I can truly see the value of teaching a workshop to men on “what do you do if you’ve been called a creep,” except that I somehow don’t think these are the right *people* to teach such a workshop in the slightest

Let’s also remember that this is the same group of organizers in the Silicon Valley AI scene who are also involved with throwing “consensual non-consent” events - IE, simulated rape. Which whistleblowers like Sonia Joseph have cited as creating a “coercive climate” for female AI researchers.

taco belle here is doing a good job of laying out the pretty obvious problems with weaving group sex parties, sometimes involving consensual non-consent, into AI industry culture:

Aimee Pepper is also making some great points on how “the culture of Al safety/Lighthaven is detrimentally linked to the culture of CNC (consensual non-consent) orgies.” Again: if you are a woman who wants to work on making AI safer, this is apparently the social world you must navigate.

This is *gross*. bsky.app/profile/leah...

So many autistic/neurodivergent women (which I bet describes a LOT of women in the Silicon Valley AI scene) report being *specifically* targeted by sexual predators who take advantage of their issues with reading social situations. Which is why I loathe the “oh, those poor autistic men” excuse.