Dossier artificial intelligence in a critical perspective: anthropological contributions and technological imaginaries

2024-06-03

Dossier

Artificial intelligence in a critical perspective: anthropological contributions and technological imaginaries

Organization: Carolina Parreiras (LETEC/USP)

 

Contributions received until August 30th via the website https://www.revistas.usp.br/gis.

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Discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) have gained great prominence in recent years, especially from the so-called generative AIs, capable of generating texts, images and videos in a very fast and simplified way (Chat GPT, Bardi and similar). Something remarkable is how much, in these debates, there are concerns and opinions that oscillate between highlighting the harms and dangers of artificial intelligence and defending – sometimes passionately – its possibilities. 
With this in mind, the objective of this dossier is to bring to discussion the possible meanings of adopting artificial intelligence in everyday life, proposing, above all, more complex views of processes that are far from being simply good or bad, pleasurable or dangerous. Today, there seems to be an update to a classic debate in studies on the internet and technologies in which utopian and dystopian visions come together, populated by fears and dreams, dangers and advantages. In this specific case, even though processes such as machine learning, deep learning and the use of artificial intelligence broadly in everyday operations are not so new, a debate is being revived that puts the relationship between machine and human at the center of concerns. In this sense, anthropology, when dedicated to understanding the uses, imaginaries and developments of artificial intelligence, can provide a critical vision and an important contribution to the generation of ethical technological environments and worlds.
This dossier is interested in works with an empirical focus on any areas of development and use of AIs, and also those that promote methodological and ethical discussions in relation to artificial intelligence. Creation experiments – images, above all – using AI are also welcome, as well as discussions regarding the impacts of its use on different fields of knowledge production.