Ritika Dutt | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | India |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Alma mater | McGill University |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Known for | Co-founder and CEO of Botler AI |
| Awards | Forbes 30 Under 30 - Law & Policy |
Ritika Dutt is a Canadian entrepreneur. She is the CEO and co-founder of the legal artificial intelligence company Botler AI. In December 2019, Dutt was named as the only Canadian in the Forbes' 30 Under 30 2020 Law and Policy List. [1]
Dutt was born in India, spent her childhood in Hong Kong and her teenage years in Singapore. [2] In 2009, she moved to Montréal, Canada to attend McGill University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Economics and Political Science in 2013. [3]
After graduating from McGill, Dutt headed the marketing department of a Y Combinator startup. [4] She then took over the internal operations of Notman House, Montreal's Google for Entrepreneurs tech hub, where she fostered the local startup community by supporting and promoting innovative ventures and initiatives. [5] [6]
Using her background in economics and innovation, Dutt then co-founded Botler AI in 2017 to enhance accessibility to the legal system, through artificial intelligence. [7]
Prior to co-founding Botler, Dutt found herself faced with a stalker during a terrifying, months-long ordeal. [8] The man showed up at her workplace everyday, stalked her on social media to learn of her location, and even followed her to her home. [8] Though fearful, Dutt found herself making excuses thinking "It’s all in my head" or "I don't know if something is really wrong or if I'm too sensitive". [9] She didn't know what her rights were, what she should do, or if the man's actions were illegal. [3] The experience left her feeling trapped and Dutt struggled to call it what it was: stalking, or criminal harassment in Canadian law. [8] [10]
Months later, after the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations and ensuing spread of the #MeToo movement, Dutt started researching the relevant legal codes and learned what had happened to her was a crime. [11] She gained confidence from learning there was a legal basis to what she had felt and that she had been justified with her discomfort. [12]
Dutt realized that sexual harassment was a far bigger issue than imagined and found herself angered thinking “How many people think they can do this and get away with it?". [13] [10]
In December 2017, motivated to take action by her personal experiences, Dutt led Botler AI to launch a free tool to help survivors of sexual harassment determine whether their rights had been violated. [11] The tool was aimed as an impartial resource to empower the average person through information and education, without fear of judgment. [10]
Dutt's premise was that, unlike humans, a robot has no prejudice of race, gender, sexual orientation or socio-economic background, would never ask “What were you wearing?” or “How many drinks did you have?”, and therefore provided an emotion- and judgement-free neutral tool to complainants. [14] [15] The Artificial Intelligence system, which also used deep learning, was trained using over 300,000 court documents from Canada and the United States. [16] [11] Natural language processing was used to determine whether an incident described by the user could be classified as sexual harassment.
The user was provided with a summary of the relevant legal codes, based on their jurisdiction, and a detailed report of the incident which could be handed over to the relevant authorities, from HR to the police, if desired. [17] [16] [12] The goal was not to let the user know whether they could win a case in court, but rather to empower them with confidence grounded in legal doctrine. [12] Dutt stressed, “Once people have the information then it’s up to them what they want to do with it... maybe they feel comfortable to approach somebody like HR…or maybe it makes them feel better that it’s not just in my head, and I have the right to stand up to my abuser because I have rights in this situation.” [18]
Dutt also commented “This is just the first step” and revealed plans to expand Botler to connect users with resources appropriate with their situation, including legal representation. [19] [15] [16]
A restraining order or protective order, is an order used by a court to protect a person in a situation often involving alleged domestic violence, child abuse, assault, harassment, stalking, or sexual assault.
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment can be physical and/or a demand or request for sexual favors, making sexually colored remarks, showing pornography, and any other unwelcome physical, verbal, or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions from verbal transgressions to sexual abuse or assault. Harassment can occur in many different social settings such as the workplace, the home, school, or religious institutions. Harassers or victims can be of any gender.
Sexual misconduct is misconduct of a sexual nature which exists on a spectrum that may include a broad range of sexual behaviors considered unwelcome. This includes conduct considered inappropriate on an individual or societal basis of morality, sexual harassment and/or criminal sexual assault.
Lisa Read Bloom is an American attorney known for advising Harvey Weinstein amid various sexual abuse allegations, and for representing women whose sexual harassment claims precipitated the firing of Bill O'Reilly from Fox News.
Internet safety, also known as online safety, cyber safety and electronic safety (e-safety), refers to the policies, practices and processes that reduce the harms to people that are enabled by the (mis)use of information technology.
Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk or harass an individual, group, or organization. It may include false accusations, defamation, slander and libel. It may also include monitoring, identity theft, threats, vandalism, solicitation for sex, doxing, or blackmail. These unwanted behaviors are perpetrated online and cause intrusion into an individual's digital life as well as negatively impact a victim's mental and emotional well-being, as well as their sense of safety and security online.
Cyberbullying is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers and adolescents, due to young people's increased use of social media. Related issues include online harassment and trolling. In 2015, according to cyberbullying statistics from the i-Safe Foundation, over half of adolescents and teens had been bullied online, and about the same number had engaged in cyberbullying. Both the bully and the victim are negatively affected, and the intensity, duration, and frequency of bullying are three aspects that increase the negative effects on both of them.
Revenge porn is the distribution of sexually explicit images or videos of individuals without their consent. The material may have been made by a partner in an intimate relationship with the knowledge and consent of the subject at the time, or it may have been made without their knowledge. The subject may have experienced sexual violence during the recording of the material, in some cases facilitated by narcotics such as date rape drugs which also cause a reduced sense of pain and involvement in the sexual act, dissociative effects and amnesia. The possession of the material may be used by the perpetrators to blackmail the subjects into performing other sexual acts, to coerce them into continuing a relationship or to punish them for ending one, to silence them, to damage their reputation, and/or for financial gain. In the wake of civil lawsuits and the increasing numbers of reported incidents, legislation has been passed in a number of countries and jurisdictions to outlaw the practice, though approaches have varied and been changed over the years. The practice has also been described as a form of psychological abuse and domestic violence, as well as a form of sexual abuse.
Brainly is an education company based in Kraków, Poland, with headquarters in New York City. It is an AI-powered homework help platform targeting students and parents. As of November 2020, Brainly reported having 15 million daily active users, making it the world's most popular education app. In 2024, FlexOS reported Brainly as the #1 Generative AI Tool in the education category and the #6 Generative AI Tool overall. Also in 2024, Andreessen Horowitz reported Brainly as #6 in the Top 50 Gen AI Mobile Apps by monthly active users.
Abha Singh is an Indian activist and advocate currently practicing in the High Court of Judicature at Bombay. Her activism has focused on women's rights, gender equality, and justice.
#MeToo is a social movement and awareness campaign against sexual abuse, sexual harassment and rape culture, in which people publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. The phrase "Me Too" was initially used in this context on social media in 2006, on Myspace, by sexual assault survivor and activist Tarana Burke. The hashtag #MeToo was used starting in 2017 as a way to draw attention to the magnitude of the problem. "Me Too" empowers those who have been sexually assaulted through empathy, solidarity and strength in numbers, by visibly demonstrating how many have experienced sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace.
Carrie Goldberg is an American lawyer specializing in sex crimes with her law firm C.A. Goldberg PLLC. She has represented: five clients who described sexual abuse committed by Harvey Weinstein; the former Democrat Member of Congress Katie Hill after her naked photos were published in the media; and the author Emma Cline after an ex-partner sued for plagiarism. Her legal cases with low-profile individuals—involving revenge porn, intimate partner violence and online abuse—often draw national media attention.
Akancha Srivastava, is the founder of Akancha Srivastava Foundation. The Foundation was formed in 2017. It is an 80G certified, non-profit organization in India that works for the education and empowerment of people by imparting the knowledge of cyber safety via its initiative Akancha Against Harassment.
Deepfake pornography, or simply fake pornography, is a type of synthetic pornography that is created via altering already-existing pornographic material by applying deepfake technology to the faces of the actors. The use of deepfake porn has sparked controversy because it involves the making and sharing of realistic videos featuring non-consenting individuals, typically female celebrities, and is sometimes used for revenge porn. Efforts are being made to combat these ethical concerns through legislation and technology-based solutions.
Julie S. Lalonde is a Franco-Ontarian women's rights advocate, author, and educator. She has created multiple feminist organizations and education campaigns, and has offered many training sessions surrounding sexual violence, harassment, and bystander intervention. Her first book, Resilience is Futile: The Life and Death and Life of Julie S. Lalonde, was published in February 2020.
The #MeToo movement emerged in China shortly after it originated in the United States. In mainland China, online MeToo posts were slowed by government censorship. On Weibo, #Metoo and #MetooinChina were both blocked for a period of time. To avoid the censorship, Chinese women using the #MeToo hashtag on social media began using bunny and bowl-of-rice emojis; "rice bunny" is pronounced mi-tu in Chinese. Feminist activist Xiao Qiqi originated the use of rice-bunny emojis for the movement. Another alternative is “River Crab” which indicates censorship. Generally, the #Metoo movement was only accessible to elite women and urban women.
Liz Fong-Jones is a site reliability engineer and developer advocate known for labor activism with her contributions to the Never Again pledge and her role in leading Google worker organization efforts. She is the president of the board of directors of the Solidarity Fund by Coworker, which she seeded with her own money. She is Honeycomb's field Chief Technology Officer.
Nobody's Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs, and Trolls is a 2019 book by Carrie Goldberg, co-written with Jeannine Amber. It describes incidents of sexual violence experienced by Goldberg's clients and herself, as well as other famous cases. The acts of violence include rape and sexual assault, revenge porn, "doxing", "swatting", "sextortion", and abusive messages. Goldberg categorizes perpetrators as "assholes", "psychos", "pervs" or "trolls" depending on their nature, though "assholes" was omitted in the book's subtitle to avoid profanity.
Omowumi Ogunrotimi is a Nigerian multidisciplinary legal practitioner, founder and executive director of Gender Mobile Initiative. She has worked in over 50 rural communities advocating for safe spaces for vulnerable populations, particularly girls and women.
Botler AI is a Montreal-based Canadian Artificial Intelligence company that helps users navigate the legal system. Launched in 2017 by Amir Morv and Ritika Dutt, Botler offers a free online tool which provides users who are unaware of their legal rights with information and guidance.