Artificial Intelligence: From Automated Care to Queer Futures
Instructor: Maxim Miroshnichenko, PhD
Format
Live on GCAS Zoom. Discussion sessions are recorded for those who can not attend the live seminar.
Description
Embark on a fascinating journey into artificial intelligence as we delve deep into its relationship with society, art, ethics, and the future of human-machine interaction. This course provides a holistic view of AI, from its philosophical underpinnings in the cybernetic era to its burgeoning role in contemporary art and its ethical implications.
Session 1
Alien Subjects: Cybernetics, AI, and Cognitive Utopias
Dive deep into the enigma of the cybernetic era, where atomic age philosophies meet AI marvels. We will see how the rise of AI research developed from the metaphors of man-machine and computational brain that became self-reflexive in the cybernetic milieu. In the cybernetic view, the utopia of transparent social cognition and rational political organization is predominant and led to the emergence of the society of intelligent machines. During the interactive part of our class, we will discuss the cases in which robots predict human behavior and consider the biopolitical impact of predictive modeling of sociality.
Literature
Negarestani, R. (2018). Intelligence and Spirit. Urbanomic/Sequence Press.
Parisi, L. (2019). The alien subject of AI. Subjectivity, 12, 27–48.
Session 2
Ethics 2.0 ≡ Automating Care: Can AI be Prosocial?
As we race toward the future, robots seem ready to wear many hats - as doctors, teachers, and even lovers. This lesson will concentrate on automating care in pedagogy, medicine, and the sex industry. Can the robot care? Will we ever be able to love a robot - or perhaps examples of such love already exist? We will see that careful and empathic behavior can be imitated based on the emulation of physico-chemical reactions and mimical movements. In addition, we will discuss whether AI can have a humanlike face to become a full-blown social agent.
Literature
Cheok, A. D., Karunanayaka, K., & Zhang, E. Y. (2017). Lovotics: Human-robot love and sex relationships. In P. Lin, K. Abney, & R. Jenkins (Eds.), Robot Ethics 2.0: From Autonomous Cars to Artificial Intelligence (pp. 193-213). Oxford University Press.
Shildrick, M. (2021). Queering dementia: Technologies, visceral prostheses and embodiment. Lambda Nordica, 26(2-3), 76-101.
Session 3
“Demand Full Automation of Art!”
Art is not just for humans anymore. Step into the mesmerizing realm where algorithms craft masterpieces. This class will be dedicated to the recent developments in AI art. In particular, we will delve into the architectures of artificial neural networks and their impact on creativity, artistic autonomy, and the art industry. AI is already creating works of art - texts, music, and images - almost indistinguishable from human creations. Does this change the way we understand the meaning of art? Paintings drawn by neural networks are already being sold at the art auctions. What is this: cutting-edge art or hype around a new technology? In the interactive part of the class, we will create and evaluate a few pieces that use machine learning in art.
Literature
Chung, N. C. (2021). Human in the loop for machine creativity. arXiv preprint.
Zhilyaev, A. (2016). Demand full automation of contemporary art. Academia.edu.
Session 4
Dis/Abled AI and Prosthetic Minds
Does AI dream? Can it experience time, possess omnipresence, or even telepathy? Can AI be reflexive, i.e., capable of self-awareness with the structures of temporality, embodiment, and agency? Or, instead, will it be diffracting, queer, and cripped? In this lesson, we will discuss the speculative futures of AI technology concerning cognitive utopias and transparency of human-robot communication. We will model several utopian and dystopian scenarios of future coexistence between humans and AI and choose the most realistic ones.
Literature
Millar, I. (2021). The Psychoanalysis of Artificial Intelligence. Palgrave Macmillan.
Portanova, S. (2022). Whose Time Is It? Asocial Robots, Syncholonialism, and Artificial Chronological Intelligence. Sternberg Press.