Machines of Capture: "Generative AI" and the Limits of Speculation

Human(e) Futures Colloquium

Thursdays, 2:00-3:15 PM, AH 348

The Human(e) Futures Colloquium brings together critical voices from across the university (and beyond) in discussion around the technologies known as “generative artificial intelligence” (Gen AI). We are interested in exploring the human(e) questions, problems, and effects that emerge from the mass, largely uncritical, adoption of GenAI. These include effects on the university and how we learn and think, questions around how our labour is understood and valued, concerns about our planet and its future, effects on how we create and engage with art and creativity, and effects on how we live and think together in cultural, social, and political communities in sustainable and equitable ways. 

View our Manifesto

Thursday, April 9: Machines of Capture: "Generative AI" and the Limits of Speculation

The technologies we misleadingly call “Generative Artificial Intelligence” are far from being simple tools or instruments. Rather, they are machines meant to capture attention, labour, data, as well as venture capital and public funds. As such, they rely on speculation – about the possibility of returns on investment, and about the limits and replaceability of consciousness. One manner for us to resist the capture of resources and meaning by these technologies is to fight the mystifications this speculation both demands and creates, place limits on speculation, and insist on ensuring that our labour remains meaningful – that all labour can be meaningful.

Speaker: Jérôme Melançon (Dept. of Philosophy and Classics, University of Regina)