Stephen Cave, Kanta Dihal, and Sarah Dillon
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- April 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198846666
- eISBN:
- 9780191881817
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198846666.003.0001
- Subject:
- Physics, Theoretical, Computational, and Statistical Physics
This chapter argues that narratives about artificial intelligence (AI) have a major impact on science, policy, and society. These imaginaries of intelligent machines matter because they form the ...
More
This chapter argues that narratives about artificial intelligence (AI) have a major impact on science, policy, and society. These imaginaries of intelligent machines matter because they form the backdrop against which AI systems are being developed, and against which these developments are interpreted and assessed. The authors show how this book explores the way AI narratives have addressed, and offer sophisticated thinking about, some of the legitimate concerns that AI technologies now raise, such as loss of skills because of automation, replacement of the workforce by machines, and their role in perpetuating systems of oppression. At the same time, this book intervenes in a landscape in which prevalent AI narratives are mistrusted or criticized, for example, for their extremism, utopian or dystopian, or for their misrepresentation of current technology, for instance, in their tendency to focus on anthropomorphic representations.Less
This chapter argues that narratives about artificial intelligence (AI) have a major impact on science, policy, and society. These imaginaries of intelligent machines matter because they form the backdrop against which AI systems are being developed, and against which these developments are interpreted and assessed. The authors show how this book explores the way AI narratives have addressed, and offer sophisticated thinking about, some of the legitimate concerns that AI technologies now raise, such as loss of skills because of automation, replacement of the workforce by machines, and their role in perpetuating systems of oppression. At the same time, this book intervenes in a landscape in which prevalent AI narratives are mistrusted or criticized, for example, for their extremism, utopian or dystopian, or for their misrepresentation of current technology, for instance, in their tendency to focus on anthropomorphic representations.
Stephen Cave, Kanta Dihal, and Sarah Dillon (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- April 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198846666
- eISBN:
- 9780191881817
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198846666.001.0001
- Subject:
- Physics, Theoretical, Computational, and Statistical Physics
This book is the first to examine the history of imaginative thinking about intelligent machines. As real artificial intelligence (AI) begins to touch on all aspects of our lives, this long narrative ...
More
This book is the first to examine the history of imaginative thinking about intelligent machines. As real artificial intelligence (AI) begins to touch on all aspects of our lives, this long narrative history shapes how the technology is developed, deployed, and regulated. It is therefore a crucial social and ethical issue. Part I of this book provides a historical overview from ancient Greece to the start of modernity. These chapters explore the revealing prehistory of key concerns of contemporary AI discourse, from the nature of mind and creativity to issues of power and rights, from the tension between fascination and ambivalence to investigations into artificial voices and technophobia. Part II focuses on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in which a greater density of narratives emerged alongside rapid developments in AI technology. These chapters reveal not only how AI narratives have consistently been entangled with the emergence of real robotics and AI, but also how they offer a rich source of insight into how we might live with these revolutionary machines. Through their close textual engagements, these chapters explore the relationship between imaginative narratives and contemporary debates about AI’s social, ethical, and philosophical consequences, including questions of dehumanization, automation, anthropomorphization, cybernetics, cyberpunk, immortality, slavery, and governance. The contributions, from leading humanities and social science scholars, show that narratives about AI offer a crucial epistemic site for exploring contemporary debates about these powerful new technologies.Less
This book is the first to examine the history of imaginative thinking about intelligent machines. As real artificial intelligence (AI) begins to touch on all aspects of our lives, this long narrative history shapes how the technology is developed, deployed, and regulated. It is therefore a crucial social and ethical issue. Part I of this book provides a historical overview from ancient Greece to the start of modernity. These chapters explore the revealing prehistory of key concerns of contemporary AI discourse, from the nature of mind and creativity to issues of power and rights, from the tension between fascination and ambivalence to investigations into artificial voices and technophobia. Part II focuses on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in which a greater density of narratives emerged alongside rapid developments in AI technology. These chapters reveal not only how AI narratives have consistently been entangled with the emergence of real robotics and AI, but also how they offer a rich source of insight into how we might live with these revolutionary machines. Through their close textual engagements, these chapters explore the relationship between imaginative narratives and contemporary debates about AI’s social, ethical, and philosophical consequences, including questions of dehumanization, automation, anthropomorphization, cybernetics, cyberpunk, immortality, slavery, and governance. The contributions, from leading humanities and social science scholars, show that narratives about AI offer a crucial epistemic site for exploring contemporary debates about these powerful new technologies.
