May 2: The culture of speed in late capitalism forces us to “hurry up” for the sake of efficiency and productivity, poke and prodded by automated AI systems. What if we slowed down at work and in life by slowing down our AI?
Slow AI and The Culture of Speed
April 6: Exploring Metcalf et al.’s research on the accountability challenges of Algorithmic Impact Assessments through the lens of impressionist painting. https://montrealethics.ai/algorithmic-impact-assessments-what-impact-do-they-have/
March 21: Applying Jenny Davis’s fantastic research on affordances to how we build AI.
March 8: Research summary of Neff et al.’s article on data science and critical data studies.
February 21: Here is the research summary of Taina Bucher’s “The algorithmic imaginary: exploring the ordinary affects of Facebook algorithms.”
February 4: Here is the research summary of Malte Ziewitz’s “Rethinking Gaming: The Ethical Work of Optimization in Web Search Engines.”
Were you wondering why I’ve been so quiet in the New Year? I thought so.
I’ve teamed up with Abhishek Gupta from the Montreal AI Ethics Institute (MAIEI) and Nga Than, sociology doctoral candidate at CUNY, to produce a weekly blog column on the Sociology of AI.
Each week we tackle a sociology paper or book and summarize the research in a way that makes it more accessible to a wider audience. We also speak directly to AI practitioners by extending the sociological work to practicable guidance on how to develop AI more responsibly. Read more about the concept here.
I will be cross-posting the blog posts here. But you can also sign up for the MAIEI newsletter and get them right in your inbox each week.
As we say goodbye to 2020 (good riddance!), what are key policy debates to look out for in 2021 that implicate technology and social justice? Because 2020 has been a turbulent year, raising many equity issues to the fore, I want to focus on those tech policies that will have the greatest impact on the most vulnerable communities; people of color, immigrants, rural and low-income students, and consumers of all stripes. I believe the most pressing social justice tech issues in 2021 will be facial recognition, privacy, and broadband access.
Continue reading “Social Justice and Tech Policy: What To Expect in 2021”
In my last blog post, I discussed the need for a Sociology of AI, sidestepping the thorny issue of what AI is. Is it a field of study? Is it a technology or collection of technologies? Is it a product? Is it nothing more than a marketing strategy?
Continue reading “What is Artificial Intelligence for the Sociologist?”
As a sociologist in AI, I often wonder what can sociology do for tech? How can the development of responsible or ethical AI benefit from sociologists’ insights, perspectives, and research? To answer that question, like any decent researcher, I turned to the sociology of AI literature and quickly realized that there isn’t one. Why not? And why should you care?
Continue reading “Sociology for or of AI? Let’s invest more in both.”
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