Do We Really Need These Technologies?

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Sally Kohn: Is there an opportunity to have more of these kind of skeptical views about these technologies get more prominence and attention? She says we need to figure out how to adjust to them rather than say, hold on a second. Do we actually need these technologies at all? And should we be embracing this and acting like it's just inevitable? Or can we push back on it?Kohn: I think that's not just about saying no, it's about saying one of the alternatives and how we go about that.

Paris Marx is joined by Dan McQuillan to discuss how AI systems encourage ranking populations and austerity policies, and why understanding their politics is essential to opposing them.

Dan McQuillan is a Lecturer in Creative and Social Computing at Goldsmiths, University of London. He’s also the author of Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence. You can follow Dan on Twitter at @danmcquillan.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Dan wrote specifically about ChatGPT and how we should approach it on his website.
Dan mentions TWIML as a podcast that has conversations with industry players that’s informative for how these technologies work (though you’re not likely to get a critical perspective on them), and Achille Mbembe’s book Necropolitics.
OpenAI used Kenyan workers earning $2/hour to make ChatGPT less toxic.
The UK had to scrap a racist algorithm it was using for visa applications and many councils dropped the use of algorithms in their welfare and benefits systems.
Dan mentions a Human Rights Watch report on the EU’s flawed AI regulations and its impacts on the social safety net.
The Lucas Plan was developed by workers at Lucas Aerospace in the 1970s, but rejected by their bosses.