AI and the Western Illusion of Human Nature: Anthropology's fight against Human Reducationism and its Interdisciplinary Future
Type
conference keynote
Author(s)
Abstract
With the rise of AI driven technologies, algorithms have replaced paperwork in the construction of social truths (Graeber, 2016); they build truths about who we are, our cultural worlds and our identities. Anthropologists have discussed the implications of big data as meaning construction (see Boellstroff and Mauer, 2015), the powerful discourses of algorithms as culture (Dourish, 2016; Seaver, 2017) or the multiple ways in which people are negotiating with data narratives in everyday life (Barassi, 2017, 2020; Pink et al., 2018; Dourish and Cruz, 2018). However, much more research is needed on the human reductionism implicit to these systems, and the western-centric and biased visions of human nature implicit to these technologies. This paper brings the findings of a three-year ethnographic project on the profiling of children from before birth (Child | Data | Citizen Project, 2016 - 2019) together with the findings of a (non-anthropological) research project aimed at analyzing the discourses around algorithmic profiling in Europe and the critical practices that are emerging against it (The Human Error Project, 2020 – ongoing). The paper will argue that anthropology has a fundamental role to play in the future of AI ethics research and the study of algorithmic profiling. The discipline reminds us that ideas of human nature are not only social and cultural but also political constructions (Sahlins, 2008; Graeber and Sahlins, 2017). Yet to succeed it will need to build projects that are truly interdisciplinary, which consider data-structures, policies, as well as popular media discourses.
Funding(s)
Language
English
Event Title
RAI2022: Anthropology, AI and the Future of Human Society
Event Location
Online
Event Date
6.06.2022 to 10.06.2022
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
268337