Industrial robots, self-driving cars, customer-service chatbots and Google's algorithmic predictions have brought the topic of artificial intelligence into public debate. Why is AI the source of such intense controversy and what are its economic, political, social and cultural consequences?
Tracing the changing fortunes of artificial intelligence, Elliott develops a systematic account of how automated intelligent machines impact different spheres and aspects of public and private life. Among the issues discussed are the automation of workforces, surveillance capitalism, warfare and lethal autonomous weapons, the spread of racist robots and the automation of social inequalities. Elliott also considers the decisive role of AI in confronting global risks and social futures, including global pandemics such as COVID-19, and how smart algorithms are impacting the search for energy security and combating climate change.
Making Sense of AI provides a judiciously comprehensive account of artificial intelligence for those with little or no previous knowledge of the topic. It will be an invaluable book both for students in the social sciences and humanities and for general readers.
Author(s): Anthony Elliott
Publisher: Polity Press
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 234
City: Bristol
Cover
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
Preface
1 The Origins of Artificial Intelligence
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Frontiers of AI: Global Transformations, Everyday Life
Complex Systems, Intelligent Automation and Surveillance
2 Making Sense of AI
Two Theoretical Perspectives: Sceptics and Transformationalists
Sceptics
Transformationalists
Integrating the Insights
3 Global Innovation and National Strategies
World Leaders: USA, China and Globalization
The USA
China’s AI Ambitions
The World Leaders Compared
The EU and European Developments
Finland
Poland
The UK
Outliers: UAE, Japan and Australia
4 The Institutional Dimensions of AI
Complex Adaptive Systems and AI
The Increasing Scale of AI
Path-Dependent Connections: New and Old Technologies
The Globalization of AI Technologies and Industries
The Diffusion of AI in Institutional and Everyday Life
AI and Complexity
The Penetration of AI into Lifestyle Change and the Self
AI, Surveillance and the Transformation of Power
Human-Machine Interfaces and Coactive Interactions
Complex Systems
Human-Machine Interfaces
Interfaces and the Changing Location of Social Actors
5 Automation and the Fate of Employment
Robots Replacing Jobs: AI, Automation, Employment
Automated Professions, Robot Managers
Globalization, Globots and Remote Intelligence
Empowerment: Education, Reskilling, Retraining
6 Social Inequalities Since AI
Automating Social Inequalities
Ghosts in the Machine: Racist Robots
AI and Gender Troubles
Digital Inequalities: Chatbots and Social Exclusion
7 Algorithmic Surveillance
The Digital Revolution and Panoptic Surveillance
After Super-Panopticon: Surveillance Capitalism
Military Power: Drones, Killer Robots and Lethal Automated Weapons
8 The Futures of AI
The Future Now: COVID-19 and Global AI
Automated Societies: Networked Artificial Life
The Year 2045: The Technological Singularity
AI Climate Futures
Algorithmic Power and Trust
Further Reading
Notes
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Index
EULA
