Digital pornotroping: Misogynoir and the myth of AI neutrality

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This commentary uses Black feminist epistemology as a critical lens to examine how generative artificial intelligence automates the racial-sexual objectification and dehumanization of Black women. It analyzes three distinct manifestations of automated misogynoir: first, how video generators expand digital blackface to virtual minstrel shows, functioning as digital daguerreotypes; second, how AI enables algorithmic curation within digital media platforms to perpetuate bestialized humanization; and third, how automated hiring platforms reward proximity to whiteness (specifically white femininity) while marginalizing Black women. Disavowing claims of neutrality within the dominant discourse around AI, this commentary highlights how Black women resist algorithmic oppression through defensive digital alchemy such as Aliyah Jones’s “Corporate Catfish” experiment. To conclude, it argues that a Black feminist epistemology of AI provides both a critique of automated systems and a blueprint for community-based approaches to envision technology for more liberatory purposes.