AI & SOCIETY - Special issue on Where’s the Intelligence in AI? Mattering, Placing, and De-individuating AI
Guest Editors:
Dr Ludovico Rella, Durham University, United Kingdom, ludovico.rella [AT] durham.ac.uk
Dr Fabio Iapaolo, Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom, fiapaolo [AT] brookes.ac.uk
From ancient myths like Pygmalion to contemporary films such as Ex Machina, our perennial fascination with thinking machines originates in the tantalising prospect that attributes deemed the epitome of the human—such as consciousness, intelligence, and autonomous action—might be replicated in mediums other than the human body (Kang, 2011; Riskin 2007). In its historical quest to reproduce “the quintessence of our humanity, our faculty for reason” (McCorduck, 2004, p. 4), AI research has tacitly embraced the liberal view of humans as autonomous, rational agents, serving as the ideal model to be pursued and replicated in intelligent machines. By decoupling embodiment from intelligence (Hayles, 1999), early cybernetics paradoxically prefigured the association between AI and liberal subjectivity, with qualities such as abstract thought and symbolic reasoning perceived as its defining features (Preston, 1991). This hegemonic trend, which remains evident today, is particularly manifest in the cultural and scientific imagination of AI as discrete technologies that operate in ways different from, yet fundamentally akin to, the sovereign human subject—demonstrated by the continual emphasis on notions like autonomy, intentionality, control, and decision-making.
However, understandings and conceptualizations of the human, and by extension, AI, are not uniform, but rather diverse and multifaceted. They are shaped by a multitude of worldviews, political imaginaries, and social expectations that can at times contradict one another (Braidotti, 2013; Barad, 2007; Hayles, 1999; Butler, 1990; Haraway, 1985; Foucault, 1970). Recognizing this diversity, an interdisciplinary panel of scholars operating within and across disciplines such as science and technology studies, cognitive science, anthropology, media studies, geography, computer science, and critical AI studies convened at the 2023 STS Italia Conference in Bologna under the overarching theme Where's the ‘Intelligence’ in AI? Mattering, Placing, and De-individuating AI (this opens in a new tab). Named after the eponymous panel, the present special issue aspires to offer novel insights into the intricate interplay between human and artificial intelligence(s) by probing further into their conceptual and material entanglements. Specifically, this edition seeks to unveil alternative dimensions and perspectives within the existing AI literature, especially concerning its dominant form today—machine learning algorithms. To achieve this, it proposes three concomitant conceptual moves: materializing, spatializing, and de-individuating AI.
Special Issue Themes:
Conceived as an experimental venue for interdisciplinary encounters, this special issue welcomes contributions that explore themes including, but not limited to:
- Imaginaries of AI personhood and their hidden ideologies
- Affordances and limitations of machine intelligence
- Space and computation Law and AI
- Genealogies of ‘artificiality’, ‘agency’, and ‘subjectivity’
- Algorithmic knowledge production and evolving conceptualizations of intelligence
- Intersectional critiques of liberal principles and ontologies shaping AI ethics and politics
- Embodiment in posthuman, post-colonial, feminist science, queer, and critical race studies, among others
- New perspectives on human subjectivity and technical agency vis-à-vis advances in AI
- Socio-technical assemblages and distributed decision-making
- AI hardware accelerators, neuromorphic microchips, sensors, and Edge AI
- The materiality of algorithms and robotics
Important Dates:
Abstract submission: 31st December 2023
Manuscript submission: 31st March 2024
Notifications: 31st May 2024
Revised papers due: 31st July 2024
Submission Formatting:
You can find more information about formatting under the section “Submission guidelines” https://www.springer.com/journal/146 (this opens in a new tab). For inquiries and to submit your abstract (300 words) by email, please contact: ludovico.rella [AT] durham.ac.uk and fiapaolo [AT] brookes.ac.uk with the subject “AI&Soc Special Issue on “Where’s the Intelligence in AI?”.