Tech execs are doing everything they can to make the power they’re consolidating feel inevitable - as though there’s nothing we can do to stop it. So how do we counter that? We go deep, and we go networked.
"The way that this has been portrayed in media is that there's like a culture war between quote unquote AI ethics and quote unquote AI safety. I've always said it's not a one-to-one match. Almost no one who came to RealML is like, I'm an AI ethicist. That is so vague. And part of what I love about their work is it's super specific, right? I'm a legal scholar working on this particular thing. I'm a historian who can archivally prove to you that there's a history of surveillance in Mexico. I'm a journalist who has investigated these algorithms that are denying people in Kenya health care. I want us to normalize that specificity rather than having people feel like they're choosing a camp that doesn't really exist. I feel like that noun thing of like, I'm a historian or I'm an anthropologist or I'm a cognitive neuroscientist or I'm a, is something that I think really strikes me about RealML as a space is it's multidisciplinary. So like everyone has a different noun, but all of their nouns come with this incredibly deep specificity. And like, I think it's actually one of the most fun things about the event is any one-on-one conversation you have with someone, you can just keep asking them questions forever and keep learning so much because they're all such deep experts. Having run RealML for the past six years, it's like, our world has got more polarized. Our fields has got more politicized. And I think that's just because there is more technology everywhere, but it's also being used to control, repress, discriminate, whatever. This is inherently a political act. I always say that the choice to put an algorithm in something to automate something, that's a policy decision. And then that's an active choice. Even if it's made in the name of like cost saving, efficiency, whatever, there is a policy choice there. Last year in Mexico was wonderful in that we all came together. One of the participants said, I like being in spaces where I feel like I'm not the most radical person in the room. It shouldn't be radical to ask questions around, why are you doing this? Does it work? This isn't for me. How do we push back? I think some of these like concepts often framed as radicalism where it's actually like, I mean, sure, I'll lean into that description, but at the same time, it is much more politicized because it is specific as well."
💬 Discussion
Tech execs are doing everything they can to make the power they’re consolidating feel inevitable - as though there’s nothing we can do to stop it. So how do we counter that? We go deep, and we go networked.
🔊 More Like This
