

The Obscurant Function of 'Artificial Intelligence' with Edward Ongweso Jr
13 snips May 16, 2025
In this engaging discussion, Edward Ongweso Jr, a Brooklyn-based writer and co-host of This Machine Kills, delves into the complexities of 'artificial intelligence.' He critiques how the term obscures corporate motivations and draws surprising parallels between modern technology and historic labor exploitation on plantations. The conversation reveals how surveillance capitalism evolved post-World War II, linking military and civilian innovations, and explores the authoritarian tendencies within Silicon Valley that threaten democratic values.
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Critique of 'Artificial Intelligence' Term
- The term "artificial intelligence" obscures the corporate agendas behind digital technologies.
- It narrows intelligence to pattern recognition, ignoring human cognitive diversity and labor realities.
Plantation Roots of Computation
- 19th-century plantation control tactics influenced modern computation's labor discipline.
- Techniques like surveillance and regimenting labor were transferred from plantations to factories.
Labor Reorganization via Surveillance
- Data collection helps reorganize labor to maximize productivity and suppress worker solidarity.
- Workers surveil each other to enforce discipline replicating plantation logic in industrial settings.