The Big Picture: A Social Theorist Perspective on AI

Whereas the first few decades of research into artificial intelligence did not achieve the progress initially anticipated by the US and Japanese governments and business leaders, its remarkable achievements this century have left policy makers and social scientists scrambling to keep up with the speed of change, and the potential of AI to alter radically how we conceive of society and of ourselves. As with any period of rapid change, speculation is rife as to what the future may hold, with interestingly most of the theorising so coming from within the industry itself. In this talk, we adopt a social theoretical and philosophical perspective on AI, reflecting on what it may involve for some of the core notions that we associate with humanity: agency (people’s ability to act autonomously and take responsibility for their actions), creativity (their ability to surpass the past and innovate) and selfhood (their sense of identity and authenticity).