AI for Everyone?

We are entering a new era of technological determinism and solutionism in which governments and business actors are seeking data-driven change, assuming that Artificial Intelligence is now inevitable and ubiquitous. But we have not even started asking the right questions, let alone developed an understanding of the consequences. Urgently needed is debate that asks and answers fundamental questions about power. This book brings together critical interrogations of what constitutes AI, its impact and its inequalities in order to offer an analysis of what it means for AI to deliver benefits for everyone. The book is structured in three parts: Part 1, AI: Humans vs. Machines, presents critical perspectives on human-machine dualism. Part 2, Discourses and Myths About AI, excavates metaphors and policies to ask normative questions about what is ‘desirable’ AI and what conditions make this possible. Part 3, AI Power and Inequalities, discusses how the implementation of AI creates important challenges that urgently need to be addressed. Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and regional contexts, this book offers a vital intervention on one of the most hyped concepts of our times

Towards data justice unionism? A labour perspective on AI governance

We are entering a new era of technological determinism and solutionism in which governments and business actors are seeking data-driven change, assuming that Artificial Intelligence is now inevitable and ubiquitous. But we have not even started asking the right questions, let alone developed an understanding of the consequences. Urgently needed is debate that asks and answers fundamental questions about power. This book brings together critical interrogations of what constitutes AI, its impact and its inequalities in order to offer an analysis of what it means for AI to deliver benefits for everyone. The book is structured in three parts: Part 1, AI: Humans vs. Machines, presents critical perspectives on human-machine dualism. Part 2, Discourses and Myths About AI, excavates metaphors and policies to ask normative questions about what is ‘desirable’ AI and what conditions make this possible. Part 3, AI Power and Inequalities, discusses how the implementation of AI creates important challenges that urgently need to be addressed. Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and regional contexts, this book offers a vital intervention on one of the most hyped concepts of our times

AI for Everyone? Critical Perspectives

We are entering a new era of technological determinism and solutionism in which governments and business actors are seeking data-driven change, assuming that Artificial Intelligence is now inevitable and ubiquitous. But we have not even started asking the right questions, let alone developed an understanding of the consequences. Urgently needed is debate that asks and answers fundamental questions about power. This book brings together critical interrogations of what constitutes AI, its impact and its inequalities in order to offer an analysis of what it means for AI to deliver benefits for everyone. The book is structured in three parts: Part 1, AI: Humans vs. Machines, presents critical perspectives on human-machine dualism. Part 2, Discourses and Myths About AI, excavates metaphors and policies to ask normative questions about what is ‘desirable’ AI and what conditions make this possible. Part 3, AI Power and Inequalities, discusses how the implementation of AI creates important challenges that urgently need to be addressed. Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and regional contexts, this book offers a vital intervention on one of the most hyped concepts of our times

AI for Everyone?

We are entering a new era of technological determinism and solutionism in which governments and business actors are seeking data-driven change, assuming that Artificial Intelligence is now inevitable and ubiquitous. But we have not even started asking the right questions, let alone developed an understanding of the consequences. Urgently needed is debate that asks and answers fundamental questions about power. This book brings together critical interrogations of what constitutes AI, its impact and its inequalities in order to offer an analysis of what it means for AI to deliver benefits for everyone. The book is structured in three parts: Part 1, AI: Humans vs. Machines, presents critical perspectives on human-machine dualism. Part 2, Discourses and Myths About AI, excavates metaphors and policies to ask normative questions about what is ‘desirable’ AI and what conditions make this possible. Part 3, AI Power and Inequalities, discusses how the implementation of AI creates important challenges that urgently need to be addressed. Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and regional contexts, this book offers a vital intervention on one of the most hyped concepts of our times

Soviet Union and Republics: Fiscal Decentralization and the Theory of Fiscal Federalism

This paper was prepared while the author was a participant of the "Young Scientist's Summer Program (YSSP)" at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg during the summer of 1991. It was completed just before, on August 19, 1991, conservative forces led by G. Yanaev attempted to oust USSR President M. Gorbachev in a coup. After the eventual failure of this coup, the political and economic developments in the Soviet Union became even more dynamic: a much faster fiscal disintegration is one of them. In fact, it seems questionable in what sense the Soviet Union is still a fiscal entity, thus justifiably allowing the use of concepts of a Theory of Fiscal Federalism, in which the following analysis is cast: an essential element of any federal system is that a power exists which can effectively limit decision-making power on lower hierarchical government levels. In the case of non-compliance with the rules laid down in the constitution, the former can coerce the latter into adhering to the rules. Certainly after the coup, and probably already before, the central government of the USSR is very much in doubt of representing a political power which could exert the necessary coercion to enforce its rules. The sequence of reform proposals mirrors the steady loss of power of the federal government in the Soviet Union. From Gorbachev's rejection in the fall 1990 of the so-called "500 Day Plan" prepared by a group of economists around S. Shatalin, partly because it conceded to Union republics alone the authority to tax, the federal government being financed by fixed quotas on the republic's revenues over the agreement on a new draft Union Treaty in April 1991, which was already less biased towards the center, to the latest so-called "Yavlinsky Plan" of September 5, 1991 -- economic reform proposals made by the Union level systematically lag behind the realities in the Soviet Union. With regard to fiscal matters, the "Yavlinsky Plan" envisages essentially what was the center's main objection to the "500 Day Plan" -- giving the right to tax exclusively to Union republics. And, it is doubtful today whether even a federation that loose is possible. If, thus, fiscal-economically the Soviet Union does not exist any more, is it mistaken to interpret developments in the fiscal system there in the light of the Theory of Fiscal Federalism? The exact characterization of the political system in the former Soviet Union is not the heart of this paper. Rather, this paper singles out some mechanisms which are at work in the devolving fiscal system in the Soviet Union. To assess their relevance now, in post-coup times, one should think of a continuum of possible solutions between a perfectly centralized fiscal system, as had been prevailing until 1987, to a perfectly decentralized fiscal system in which a Soviet fiscal entity has ceased to exist. Take one example: as discussed below, the fact that, before the coup, Union republics transferred less than 40% of tax revenue in 1991 which was assigned to the central government can be viewed, in terms of the Theory of Fiscal Federalism, as "free-rider" behavior on the republics part. As it turns out, since the failed coup, republican transfers to the center were close to zero. Assume it is no longer meaningful to refer to a central government because now its power is perfectly dismantled. Considering the (ex-)republics as independent economies, as long as there are spatial spillovers creating externalities among the (ex-)republics, the issue is now one of "International Policy Coordination", in which a leading issue is again free-rider behavior. This shows that mechanisms which were fiscally relevant up to August 1991 do not necessarily lose their importance in post-coup times-on the contrary, they might gain importance. If the struggle for fiscal power between the center and the republics is now over in the sense that fiscal power of the center is only what the republics want it to be, problems which relied on that, like the incentive implications for state enterprises which are torn between both subnational and central ministries, will be diminished. By the same token, however, inter-(ex-)republican fiscal relations on the one hand, and intra-republican relations on the other, and their potential inefficiencies (e.g., unstable tax competition between (ex-)republics, or state enterprises now under the sole, but closer surveillance, of subnational fiscal authorities, respectively) gain importance. Taken together, the analysis of the devolving Soviet fiscal system portrays many elements which are bound to play a major role also for the fiscal relations of politically independent (ex-)republics. Although some aspects will vanish with independent economies, others have emerged already in the transformation of the centralized to a federalistic Soviet fiscal system, which is what this paper is dealing with

Multi-Triangulation Using Qualitative and Crossover Methods to Investigate The Role of Media in Fossil Energy Politics

This research addresses a gap in the continuum of media studies as they relate to energy and politics, which have always been entwined. With each new source of energy or technology, a new form of social dynamics emerges. This study explores the role of media, during the Pennsylvania coal strike of 1902 and the ensuing shifts in political power. Its main hypothesis is – if media helps to shape politics, then its coverage of the 1902 Pennsylvania coal strike, had a hand in delivering democracy to a working proletariat. Using a variety of instruments, and a qualitative-cross over approach, media's role in the 1902 coal strike is explored. Four levels of triangulation, including 3 methods of research are used to analyse 2 datasets. Critical discourse analysis, which maps text, discursive practice and social elements, makes up 2 of the methods; namely transitivity for linguistic texts and a multimodal analysis for the visual text. The 3rd method is a thematic analysis of the global news articles that appeared circa 1902. Each research question entails its own process of triangulation. The terrain of media ideology is probed by triangulating 3 texts: an editorial article, a letter to the editor and a cartoon. They all tackle the 1st research question: • What were the ideologies revealed in visual or lexical patterns, that shaped the discursive composition of reality within media reports during the 1902 coal strike? Then, the 2nd dataset triangulates 3 locations to address the 2nd research question: • What role did media play in the global spread of social democracy? It was found that media discourse unveiled a new ideology within the discursive climate, which influenced society. Ultimately, it shifted the power base. It was also found that media acted globally, triggering wider power contestations. This study will show how media drew on ideology (implicitly or explicitly) to construct meaning around fossil energy politics. It also reveals how global media coverage eased information flows, during the initial wave of democracy and how Timothy Mitchell's conception – ‘carbon democracy' was made possible. Unveiling media's role, helps to unpack its potential in ushering in any new configurations of political power and energy justice, especially as an uptick in renewables is now on record

STATISTICS IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM: SOME PERSONAL VIEWS

In this paper I discuss three topics that I believe are relevant to the subject of statistics in the new millennium: (a) the impact of computers, and the state of computer-intensive methods as far as practical applications of statistics are concerned; (b) methods for the analysis of the extremely large data sets that are now becoming available; and (c) the use of statistics by scientists in general. For the first topic I suggest that the main advantage of computer-intensive methods is that they can under certain circumstances give simple and believable answers to questions when other methods fail. However, I caution against the uncritical use of computer power without proper checks that analyses work, particularly when conclusions are dependent on very complicated models with many assumptions that are difficult or impossible to verify. For the second topic I note that statistics grew up as a means of extracting the maximum amount of information from small sets of data, and we are now having some difficulty in adapting methods to huge data sets because sometimes the analyses that we might want to do are not possible even with today\u27s powerful computers. I discuss this particularly in terms of the analysis of resource selection data by animals where geographical information system data are available to describe what is available for animals to use. For the third topic I suggest that statistics and statisticians have something of an \u27image\u27 problem with scientists in general. Many scientists do not appear to regard statistics as important for their discipline, and yet errors in the analysis and interpretation of data seem to be fairly common in the scientific literature

Perceptions of Selves: Beyond the Skin Bag - Analyzing self-representation and ethos in creative digital artefacts

As technological innovations reach new heights, questions regarding how we act, see, and live with machines reveal themselves. What was once viewed as mere tools have become something we perceive as part of our social world. Technological actants now hold the power of persuasion, the power to be perceived as a self. This constitutes new perspectives regarding how we relate to those with self-representational qualities. Relations between actants in social settings boil down to discourse, where this study manifests itself. The point of entry is, paradoxically, taking root in ancient theories of rhetoric. Because self-representation in digital artefacts must necessarily be produced, it becomes a text with the potential for analysis. In its broadest possible meaning, text is a modal manifestation of existence, a textual manifestation of self. The representations are always mediated, and that mediation opens up questions about authenticity, agency, and ethos. The artefacts I propose in this thesis exist in a way that changes shape in the perception of those who perceive it. When artefacts are imbued with some form of life, uniqueness, personality and ethos, approaches and attentions must change. That is dependent on the relations we allow and instil in them. We now have different relations than before, which means that the concept of ethos must be seen anew. This thesis is a philosophical and rhetorical exploration of how ethos and self-representation can be renewed to encompass more ways of being. Through perspectives inspired by Posthumanism and Actor-Network Theory, I explore themes relating to self-representation and ethos to conceptualize an updated framework that, in essence, “de-anthropocentrize” our field of view. This thesis does not aim to be either final or limiting, but a starting point in opening a conversation about the rhetorical impact we encounter every day through humans and otherwise.Mastergradsoppgave i digital kulturDIKULT350MAHF-DIKU