Artificial whiteness politics and ideology in artificial intelligence Yarden Katz

Object Details

Notes
ELEC copy purchased with funds from the S. Dillon Ripley Endowment
Elecresource
Contents
Part I. Formation: In the service of empire -- In the service of capital -- Part II. Self and the social order -- Epistemic forgeries and ghosts in the machine -- Adaptation, not abolition: critical AI experts and carceral-positive logic -- Artificial whiteness -- Part III. Alternatives: Dissenting visions: from autopoietic love to embodied war -- A generative refusal
Summary
"Dramatic statements about the promise and peril of artificial intelligence for humanity abound, as an industry of experts claims that AI is poised to reshape nearly every sphere of life. Who profits from the idea that the age of AI has arrived? Why do ideas of AI's transformative potential keep reappearing in social and political discourse, and how are they linked to broader political agendas? Yarden Katz reveals the ideology embedded in the concept of artificial intelligence, contending that it both serves and mimics the logic of white supremacy. He demonstrates that understandings of AI, as a field and a technology, have shifted dramatically over time based on the needs of its funders and the professional class that formed around it. From its origins in the Cold War military-industrial complex through its present-day Silicon Valley proselytizers and eager policy analysts, AI has never been simply a technical project enabled by larger data and better computing. Drawing on intimate familiarity with the field and its practices, Katz instead asks us to see how AI reinforces models of knowledge that assume white male superiority and an imperialist worldview. Only by seeing the connection between artificial intelligence and whiteness can we prioritize alternatives to the conception of AI as an all-encompassing technological force. Bringing together theories of whiteness and race in the humanities and social sciences with a deep understanding of the history and practice of science and computing, Artificial Whiteness is an incisive, urgent critique of the uses of AI as a political tool to uphold social hierarchies"-- Provided by publisher
Data Source
Smithsonian Libraries
Date
2020
Call number
Q334.7 .K38 2020 (Internet)
author
Katz, Yarden
Restrictions & Rights
Non-linear
Type
Electronic resources
Electronic books
Physical description
1 online resource (x, 340 pages) illustrations
Topic
Artificial intelligence--Moral and ethical aspects
Artificial intelligence--Political aspects
Male domination (Social structure)
White supremacy movements--Philosophy
Imperialism and science
Logic--Political aspects
COMPUTERS / Artificial Intelligence / General
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General
Electronic books
Record ID
siris_sil_1153282
Usage
CC0