Social Robot Futures

Review of Kate Crawford’s “Atlas of AI”

March 22, 2022

In Atlas of AI (Yale 2021), Kate Crawford takes an ambitious and innovative approach to addressing misconceptions surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). Through the course of her book, she reveals the human and planetary resources being appropriated at every stage in AI industry supply chains and their associated social and ecological impacts. In doing so, Crawford irrevocably dispels the illusion that portrays AI as a closed system, of a non-human mind existing free of “social, cultural, historical, and political forces” (Crawford 2021, 4-5). The journey on which Crawford takes readers begins in the mines of Nevada, where the materials needed for the construction of lithium batteries are extracted from the Earth. These batteries supply the power for everything from cellular devices to electric vehicles, and Crawford uses the journey of lithium from Earth to technology to trash heap – the cycle of extraction-consumption-disposal – to begin her illustration of the effects of large-scale computation, effects that Crawford writes can be found in “the atmosphere, the oceans, the earth’s crust, the deep time of the planet, and the brutal impacts on disadvantaged populations around the world” (28). From there, Crawford explores the human labour upon which AI is built and the human data that feeds the insatiable AI industry. Further chapters address the social implications of industry classification practices; the controversy behind industry promises of an AI capable of recognizing and displaying emotions; and the role of AI in questions of state power. The result of these chapters is a comprehensive illustration of the connections between AI, human, and environment.

While Crawford is not the first author to point out ways in which AI is impacting human life and society, her use of the concept of an “atlas” exposes the issues at hand at new breadth – on a planetary scale – and with a new degree of clarity, making this book an important read. An atlas is a collection of separate images, tables, or other information that, when taken together, offer unique insight into an area or topic. In Crawford’s atlas, AI becomes the subject of study, as she uncovers the multitude of interactions it has with different groups of people from across the globe. Because of this, Atlas of AI contains perspectives on these technologies that have traditionally been ignored. Crawford manages to combine her many angles of approach and the examples she presents into a complete roadmap that guides readers to discover the ways in which AI technologies and the industries surrounding it draw on and feed into human life. It is far from a small task; however, using her unique approach and an impressive amount of research, Crawford has created an effective, approachable, and engaging read that will change the ways in which we view AI.

Bio

Ellen Nantau is a licensed pharmacist who is presently working on an MA in the Women and Gender Studies Program at Saint Mary’s University.

Image source: https://katecrawford.net/

Interviews

Robots and What It Is To Be Human

February 21, 2021October 12, 2021

— Podcast with Robin Murphy and Teresa Heffernan

In the introduction to “Robots,” Episode 49 of Words to that Effect: Stories of the Fiction that Shapes Popular Culture, podcast host Conor Reid reflects on how, “from the very first use of the word robot,” in the early 20th century play, R.U.R., “there are tensions and contrasts between the miraculous technological advancement the robots embody, and fundamental issues of freedom and slavery and what it is to be human.”

Interviews

AI and Cyborg Futures

December 16, 2020September 16, 2021

— Video interview with Teresa Heffernan

In this CTV News interview, Bruce Frisko talks with Saint Mary’s University professor Teresa Heffernan, editor of Cyborg Futures: Trans-disciplinary Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, about the effects of AI and robotics on our lives today, and the role of beliefs and fictional representations in driving the development of these technologies.

Upcoming Events

Cyborg Futures Edited Collection

November 18, 2020September 16, 2021

— Online discussion of new edited book

Join Dr. Teresa Heffernan this Thursday, November 19th (12 noon) for a lively online lunchtime discussion of Cyborg Futures: Cross-disciplinary Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Edited by Dr. Heffernan, Cyborg Futures brings together perspectives from fields as diverse as evolutionary biology, sociology, literary theory, and robotics to critically examine the impacts of AI on our work, play, creative expressions, and social interactions.

Upcoming Events

AI, the Immortality Industry, and the Ethics of Death

October 14, 2020September 16, 2021

This talk by Teresa Heffernan considers the far reaches of the multi-billion-dollar immortality industry and the money and power behind the scenes that fuels this fantasy science even as the planet teeters on the brink of collapse. After examining some contemporary fictions that challenge big tech and its paradoxical escalation of the end of all life even as it hankers after life without death in its relentless focus on a future that is always “future,” this talk then turns to archaeology and the future’s archaic longings.

Discussion

Awakening to the Realities of AI in Healthcare

July 20, 2020September 16, 2021

By Ellen Nantau

I was standing in an airport customs line when I realized that I wanted to be a physician. An announcement sounded overhead – an employee asking if anyone present was a doctor. My parents, both in medicine, shared a look. We were already at risk of missing our connecting flight and neither of them were currently in general practice or emergency medicine. When no one else stepped forward, my father pushed through the nearby crowd that had formed around a seated woman, crouched to her level, and told her that he was a doctor.

News

CFP: AI and Robotics Book Series

June 19, 2020September 16, 2021

The Social and Cultural Studies of AI and Robotics is an exciting and innovative book series that expands the debates about robotics and artificial intelligence, exploring the pressing concerns about its social and cultural impacts. From the restructuring of work to the automation of historical inequities to the concentration of wealth and power of Big Tech to the founding myths and fictions of AI to its environmental impact, this series welcomes contributions from humanities and social science researchers working at the intersection of technology and humanity.

Discussion

A Comment on “Living Robots”

April 7, 2020September 16, 2021

By Yaqub Chaudhary

In mid-January 2020, it was reported that scientists created the first “living robot” which represents a new class of biological artefact in the form of a “programmable organism” according to headlines in the Independent and Wired. Elsewhere, the ability of these new entities to “walk” was highlighted by the Guardian, opening up possibilities for potential advances of the technology for “drug delivery” and “toxic waste clean-up” as highlighted by Science Daily, all of which invites new “opportunities and risks” according to Forbes.

Discussion

The Tyranny of Life Under Algorithms: A Short Meditation

November 24, 2019October 12, 2021

By Teresa Heffernan

Alan Turing–the force behind theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence, and the Universal Turing Machine–was instrumental in cracking intercepted coded messages, which enabled the Allies to defeat the Nazis. He was charged with “gross indecency” in 1952 and punished for homosexuality. He submitted to chemical castration in lieu of prison.

News

Machines and the Ethics of Miscegenation

October 16, 2019September 16, 2021

In a fascinating new article in Glass Bead Journal, Louis Chude-Sokei (2019) begins by challenging the parallels between humans and machines that David Levy (2007) mobilizes in his controversial book Love and Sex with Robots. The parallels Levy sets up, Chude-Sokei maintains, have been “less controversial than his book’s assumptions of and possible impact on gender relationships, and his nonchalant relationship to ethics.”