Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly present in public discourse but is often characterized by techno-deterministic utopian and dystopian narratives. In this event we aim to challenge such paradigms by examining these different approaches to studying cultures of AI production.
The event will feature talks by Jonathan Roberge, Professor at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), and Claudio Celis Bueno, Assistant Professor in New Media and Digital Cultures at the University of Amsterdam (UvA).
Jonathan will present a paper co-authored with Nicolas Chartier-Edwards titled ‘Unwinding the Coil: On Machine Learning and the Performativity of Recursive Cultures’, which draws on critical AI studies and cybernetic theory to understand automated processes of looping are understood as new forms of cultures.
Claudio’s paper is titled ‘Beyond Automation: Generative AI and the Question of Labour’, which aims to shift the debate away from deterministic visions of AI and to develop a more nuanced approach to the relation between labour and generative AI.
After the presentations, we will move into a conversation format with the two speakers and the audience, to discuss further how such approaches can provide new avenues for a careful yet critical description of AI.
The event is hosted by the UvA Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) and organised by Anna Schjøtt Hansen (a.s.hansen@uva.nl) and Dieuwertje Luitse (d.luitse@uva.nl) as part of the activities in the newly launched Cultural Data & AI Lab (CUDAL), which is a hub for interdisciplinary collaborations that explores cultural data and AI.
Reminder that there is a maximum capacity of 20 participants, and it will be first-come, first-served.
Jonathan Roberge is Full Professor at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Montreal, Canada. He funded the Nenic Lab as part of the Canada Research Chair in Digital Culture he has held since 2012. His most recent edited volumes include Algorithmic Culture (Routledge, 2016) and The Cultural Life of Machine Learning (Palgrave, 2020).
Nicolas Chartier-Edwards is a PhD student at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Montreal, Canada (custom programme in Science, Politics and Technology) and a research assistant with the project Shaping AI, where he examines, through the perspective of critical AI studies and political economy, the cybernetic transformation of Canadian governance and public administration.
Claudio Celis Bueno is an IAS Fellow, Assistant Professor in New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam, and co-director of the AI and Cultural Production research group at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis. He is the author of the book The Attention Economy: Labour, Time and Power in Cognitive Capitalism. His research focuses on the relationship between technology, capitalism, and labour.