The Feminine Intelligence Agency (FIA) is a research and public policy organization dedicated to advancing Social Discernment—the ability to detect manipulation early, respond effectively, and protect personal and collective agency in complex social environments.

FIA is developing a comprehensive curriculum, scalable tools, and legal frameworks to address coercive control, emotional exploitation, and tech-enabled manipulation in relationships and digital life.

Our work focuses on:

• 🧠 Social Discernment Curriculum: A new field of emotional intelligence that helps people recognize coercion, power games, and deceptive language before harm occurs.
• 📱 Player Identifier Chatbot: A predictive tool that analyzes early relationship patterns to help users recognize emotionally dangerous individuals.
• 🔍 AI Language Training App (ChatBoy) that teaches users to spot manipulative language across different contexts—dating, work, friendship, and family.
• 🧘‍♀️ Peer-to-Peer Wellness Platform: A non-therapeutic, group-based support system designed for women navigating emotional burnout and frustration in high-conflict or confusing relationships.
• 🔐 Cybersecurity for Women: A decentralized, peer-led training program that focuses on emotional safety, social engineering, and digital resilience—especially for those targeted by psychological abuse or coercion online.

FIA’s work bridges public policy, digital safety, and emotional intelligence to help individuals and institutions detect invisible threats and respond with clarity, ethics, and courage.

This project explores how the United States might adopt policies to criminalize coercive control in intimate and institutional relationships, following the lead of countries like the UK, Scotland, and Ireland. Specifically, it will examine how emerging technologies—particularly generative AI—are amplifying patterns of manipulation, isolation, and psychological domination, a phenomenon we refer to as AI-Assisted Psychological Exploitation (AIPEx).

The student will assess:

• How Britain successfully passed coercive control laws (strategy, framing, resistance)
• Why similar efforts have struggled in the U.S. (cultural, legal, and political factors)
• How new threats—especially tech-enabled coercion—may change the narrative or legislative appetite
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The outcome will be a policy roadmap for how coercive control could be reframed, regulated, or outlawed in the U.S., including legal frameworks, political feasibility, and public engagement strategies.

📘 Policy Problem:

The U.S. lacks legal frameworks to address non-physical forms of abuse like gaslighting, digital surveillance, emotional manipulation, and isolation tactics—despite their well-documented psychological and economic impacts. The problem is compounded by AI tools that are being misused to amplify these tactics at scale (e.g., deepfakes, real-time surveillance, chatbot mirroring, voice cloning).

This project addresses both a market failure (unregulated tools enabling harm) and a government failure (lack of legal protections and prevention strategies for psychological abuse).

🧩 Key Questions to Explore:

1. What legislative, advocacy, and cultural strategies made coercive control laws pass in the UK and Ireland?
2. What would a U.S.-specific policy roadmap need to look like—legally, politically, and culturally?
3. Could technology-driven manipulation (AIPex) be a wedge issue for reform or regulation?
4. What risks or resistance would this proposal face from political, tech, or legal sectors?

Deliverables:

• Comprehensive Policy Report (50-page analysis including legal context, strategic opportunities, and barriers)
• Implementation Plan (framing, coalition-building, federal vs. state approach)
• Policy Brief (3–5 pages summarizing findings and recommendations)
• Op-ed Draft (for public engagement on the threat of AIPex)
• Talking Points (for use by advocates, policymakers, and media)
• Optional: Infographic (visualizing coercive control and AI-exploitation risks)