Ai

We’re always told (and often believe) that technology is “objective” and “neutral.” Too, we buy

the idea that technology is an expression of historical “progress” where life always gets easier

and better because technology gives us solutions to the problems of the age. However, we

would do well to question these arguments and assumptions. As Adam Greenfield notes in his

book, Radical Technologies:

[P]erhaps we could do a better job of pushing back again the rhetoric of transcendence

we’re offered. Every time we are presented with the aspiration toward the posthuman,

we need to perceive the predictably tawdry and all-too-human drives underlying it,

including the desire to profit from the exploitation of others and the sheer will to power

and control. It doesn’t take a trained psychologist to detect that these motives are

present, and being clearer about them might give us at least momentary leverage over

those pushing so hard for our own eclipse, who in doing so have consecrated their

considerable gifts to the task of achieving the smallest, shallowest, and most shaming of

dreams” (315).

In other words, the technologies we create reflect an individual or culture’s values and drives. In

this way, technology can be “read” and “interpreted” in the same ways as we “read” and

interpret” books--we can learn about the historical moment in which some technology was

created; we can learn about an individual or group’s value; we can learn about the various ways

in which technology has been used for purposes other than those for which it was designed

(remember Herbert Simon’s definition of the “Artifact as ‘Interface’”). Indeed, Plato and others

characterized rhetoric and writing as a “technê” (the root of the word “technology”). So, now, in

this next portion of our class, we’ll turn our attention to another question. Instead of asking

question about Artificial Intelligence, we’ll ask questions about what Artificial Intelligence reveals

about us (AI’s creators). To put it simply, what does Artificial Intelligence say about us as

humans?

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While this might seem like a lot, it's manageable (it should take an hour or so to get through

most of this stuff). Actually, you might enjoy some of this week's readings/videos/podcasts. Here we go (all links and documents are linked up below):

1) Watch this: https://www.npr.org/2018/01/26/580617998/cathy-oneil-do-algorithms-perpetuate-

human-bias

2) Read/listen to these: https://michiganstate.sharepoint.com/sites/Section_US20-IAH-206-733-

97RD3S-EL-04-

075/Shared%20Documents/Project%20Two/Nick_Bostrom_on_the_Simulation_Argument.mp3

3) Read: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/13/ai-programs-exhibit-racist-and-sexist-

biases-research-reveals

4) Read: https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/aug/08/rise-of-the-racist-robots-how-ai-is-

learning-all-our-worst-impulses

5) Read: http://www.npr.org/2016/03/27/472067221/internet-trolls-turn-a-computer-into-a-nazi

6) Watch: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2017/apr/07/meet-erica-the-

worlds-most-autonomous-android-video

7) Read: https://cpr.unu.edu/ai-global-governance-turning-the-tide-on-crime-with-predictive-

policing.html

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After reading the readings and watching the videos, I’d like you to do some speculating (as a

way to begin organizing our own thoughts and feelings on the above question). So, tell me, what

was most striking about these videos/readings? Why? Was there something that changed your

mind/thinking about AI? Why/why not? Please don’t be afraid to cite the materials.

Answers go here: