International Summer University course at the University of Tartu, August 2023: some introductory readings
Introduction. The historical and contemporary interpretations of the concept of artificial intelligence. Debunking AI myths.
Agre, Philip E. 1997. “Toward a Critical Technical Practice: Lessons Learned in Trying to Reform AI.” In Social Science, Technical Systems, and Cooperative Work: Beyond the Great Divide, 131–57. New York, London: Psychology Press.
McCarthy, John, Marvin L. Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, and Claude E. Shannon. 2006. “A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, August 31, 1955.” AI Magazine 27 (4): 12–14.
Natale, Simone, and Andrea Ballatore. 2020. “Imagining the Thinking Machine: Technological Myths and the Rise of Artificial Intelligence.” Convergence 26 (1): 3–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856517715164.
The historical entanglements of AI, society and semiotics. Technology and society. Social constructionism and its critique.
Winner, Langdon. 1980. “Do Artifacts Have Politics?” Daedalus, 121–36.
Mihandoust, Shahab, and Francesco Garutti, dirs. 2014. Misleading Innocence (Tracing What a Bridge Can Do). CCA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u6zYcci_5w.
Ali, Syed Mustafa. 2016. “A Brief Introduction to Decolonial Computing.” XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students 22 (4): 16–21. https://doi.org/10.1145/2930886.
Dydynski, Jason Mario, and Nelly Mäekivi. 2021. “Impacts of Cartoon Animals on Human–Alloanimal Relations.” Anthrozoös 34 (6): 753–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2021.1926718.
Cave, Stephen, and Kanta Dihal. 2020. “The Whiteness of AI.” Philosophy & Technology 33 (4): 685–703. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-020-00415-6.
Contemporary applications of AI. Generative AI and its impact on society. Language technologies and deepfakes. Military technologies.
Bender, Emily M., Timnit Gebru, Angelina McMillan-Major, and Shmargaret Shmitchell. 2021. “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜.” In Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, 610–23. Virtual Event Canada: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3442188.3445922.
Perrigo, Billy. 2023. “OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour: Exclusive | Time.” Time, January 18, 2023. https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/.
Taylor, Bryan C. 2021. “Defending the State from Digital Deceit: The Reflexive Securitization of Deepfake.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 38 (1): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2020.1833058.
Viidalepp, Auli. 2022. “The Semiotic Functioning of Synthetic Media.” Információs Társadalom 22 (4): 109–18. https://doi.org/10.22503/inftars.XXII.2022.4.9.
Automation bias and anthropomorphism. Examples of societal problems in technology design processes and their solutions.
Jo, Eun Seo, and Timnit Gebru. 2020. “Lessons from Archives: Strategies for Collecting Sociocultural Data in Machine Learning.” In Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, 306–16. Barcelona Spain: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3351095.3372829.
Bryson, Joanna J., and Philip P. Kime. 2011. “Just an Artifact: Why Machines Are Perceived as Moral Agents.” In Twenty-Second International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
Leveson, Nancy G. 2017. “The Therac-25: 30 Years Later.” Computer 50 (11): 8–11. https://doi.org/10.1109/MC.2017.4041349.
Nass, Clifford, Jonathan Steuer, and Ellen R. Tauber. 1994. “Computers Are Social Actors.” In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 72–78.
AI in fiction and popular culture. The (super)human continuum: superheroes, cyborgs and artificial creatures in science fiction narratives.
Haynes, Roslynn. 2003. “From Alchemy to Artificial Intelligence: Stereotypes of the Scientist in Western Literature.” Public Understanding of Science 12 (3): 243–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662503123003.
Musa, Roberto. 2020. “Echoes of Myth and Magic in the Language of Artificial Intelligence.” AI & SOCIETY, April. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-020-00966-4.
Bates, Emily. 2022. “Beth Singler Interview: The Dangers of Treating AI like a God.” New Scientist, January 7, 2022. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2303858-beth-singler-interview-the-dangers-of-treating-ai-like-a-god/.
Singler, Beth. 2020. “The AI Creation Meme: A Case Study of the New Visibility of Religion in Artificial Intelligence Discourse.” Religions 11 (5): 253. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11050253.