4TH MEETING
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, DIGITALIZATION AND ECOLOGY
OCTOBER 28, 2023 | 11:45AM
Ana Valdivia. Upside-down artificial intelligence of the upside-down world: a critique beyond algorithmic bias.
Artificial intelligence (AI) impacts our communities beyond its bias. If we look at this technology from the perspective of those at the bottom, that is, the oppressed, we see that its impact goes far beyond the bias of data or algorithms. For example, if we analyze its life cycle we see the serious ecological and political impact it is causing. From the extraction of natural resources to manufacture laptops and servers, to the energy and water consumption of data centers, to the deposit of such infrastructure in landfills in the Global South. It is necessary to apply critical methodologies that account for the damages and risks that AI and the private actors behind it are causing in our communities and territories.
Jordi Pigem. Where is the digitalization of the world taking us?
When digital technologies appeared in the 20th century, they were accompanied by a promise of progress, freedom and creativity. Today, their net effect seems to be an increase in inequality, polarization, distractions, surveillance and control. In the short term, they also threaten to put much of humanity out of work, and not in exchange for a more meaningful existence. We are personalizing robots and, at the same time, we are robotizing people. Where is the digitization of the world really taking us? And why do we have this feeling that we have to adapt to the development of technology, as if technology were not at the service of people, but people at the service of technology?