ABSTRACT
Through an analysis of Wole Talabi’s “The Regression Test” (2017) and Nnedi Okorafor’s “Mother of Invention” (2018), this chapter explores gendered representations of AI in African short fiction. By portraying interactions between African women and feminized AI, these narratives not only challenge the encoded biases of current AI development, but show how African women, as subjects who are least likely to achieve self-recognition in sociotechnological futures, are able to perceive and relate to AI differently. Drawing on a pre-existing ethos of Afro-feminist friendships, these narratives illustrate African women engaging with AI in ways that alleviate the systemic oppression of global racial capitalism and domestic heteropatriarchy and, more significantly, provide a template for more ethical relationality where both women and AI might realize mutual personhood in the future.
