Disillusion and enhancement: anti-humanist implications of generative artificial intelligence

Disillusion and enhancement: Reactionary solutionism, repressive desublimation and the anti-humanist implications of generative artificial intelligence

In this session, Gilroy-Ware explores connections between the reactionary turn in politics that has emerged in the last decade or so in various global contexts, and the accelerating proliferation of artificial intelligence tools that purport to replicate tasks such as writing, thinking and even creative expression that have previously been quintessential outcomes of human experience and struggle. In what ways can a technology that both offers its users and pursues technologically a replication of human cultural and communicative forms teach us something about our historical moment, and the reactionary politics that have become intrinsic to it? Central in these connections is not only the decline of institutions and traditions such as democracy, but a deteriorating position in the political imagination for the human being herself.

Accessibility

An access guide to Darwin Building, Lecture Theatre B40 can be found on AccessAble.

About the speaker

Marcus Gilroy-Ware began his scholarly career in journalism studies imagining a future for digital journalism, later shifting to the broader picture of 'factual media' and online culture, and working to build critical theories of technology, discourse, power and capital.

He is author of 'After The Fact? The Truth about Fake News' (2020) and 'Filling the Void: Emotion, Capitalism and Social Media'(2017). His work is frequently interdisciplinary, drawing on multiple literacies, and he has prior academic training in cognitive science, linguistics and law, while his doctoral work was in cultural studies and political economy.

Marcus is co-ordinator of the SOAS Digital Research Network, and alongside academic work, he worked as a software developer and entrepreneur from 2005-2017. He is also a musician and visual artist. Marcus has quite a wide range of interests. Geographically, the global political economy of the internet means an entirely localised expertise in digital media less interesting, but regionally Marcus is particularly interested in Brazil (where he has lived), Israel/Palestine, East Africa, South Asia and the Euro-Atlantic.

He is keenly interested in aspects of political culture such as suspicion and conspiracy beliefs, and his works develop a 'thicker' understanding of misinformation that incorporates these sociological factors. Marcus also researches cultural commodification, remix, Gender/masculinity, the role of handheld device-based video in simulating, fragmenting and enclosing public conversation.

About this event series

Political turning points, 2024-2025: Causes, consequences, solutions

2024 and 2025 are crucial years for global politics, with a number of highly anticipated elections (in India, the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere). These elections are coming at a time ofcoinciding with major armed conflicts (especially in Ukraine and Gaza), as well as rising levels of income inequality (globally and nationally), deflated living standards that still have not recovered to pre-Covid levels, crumbling healthcare systems, and fierce culture wars that are tearing up the fabric of our societies.

The sense of uncertainty and volatility is overwhelming and there is no way to predict what world we will live in two years from now. How can we understand thisthe causes and consequences of this overwhelming uncertainty and volatility? and what are the different components that define its causes and consequences? What is being done to mitigate for its effects and address the different challenges that emerge in it?

This series of Director’s Seminars and Soundbites will approach the question of uncertainty by exploring the complex range of practices and processes that define it today as a condition that is closely interlinked with economic, cultural, and environmental challenges.

Director's Seminars are an opportunity for audiences to get an in-depth theoretical perspective on sustainable and inclusive prosperity. These Seminars are given by academics who are pushing for new ways of thinking and new ways of researching society's grand challenges.

For more events in this series visit the series page ►