AIs will tell you that 71% of modern slaves are women. Here is what is wrong with the answer.

I was doing some research for my post A photo of an enslaved woman in Libya rocks Reddit - never mind, she is in a room full of enslaved men : r/MensRights

When you ask Microsoft's Copilot, Google's Gemini, or OpenAI's ChatGPT, all three will tell you that 71% of modern slaves are women, citing research by the UN agency International Labour Organization (ILO). (source). This is why the answer is problematic:

Forced marriage and slavery

Half of that 71% figure are women in forced marriages. I understand why forced marriage is considered a form of modern slavery, but it is a very different form of slavery - with different causes and solutions. Just keep that in mind.

Seismic global shifts or misandry towards male victims?

The research quoted by all three AIs is from 2017, but ILO published a new version in 2022 that AIs won't tell you about (source). In this new version, one will learn that:

• The number of people living in slavery increased from 40 to 50 million :(.

Sexual exploitation

• The number of men in the sexual exploitation category increased 50-fold from 0.029 to 1.4 million. At the same time, the number of women stayed roughly the same, about 5 million.

Forced marriages

• The number of men and boys in forced marriages increased 2.5 times from 2.4 to 7 million. The number of women and girls in forced marriages increased from 13 to 15 million.

Forced labor

• The number of men in forced labor has risen by 61% from 8.2 to 13.4 million. The number of women fell by 63% from 10.9 to 6.9 million.

Either between 2017 and 2022, the world underwent seismic global shifts in all forms of male slavery, or the ILO, like so many UN organizations, was ignoring male victims. Was, or still is? In any case, where are the headlines, where are the social media posts, and where is the accountability?