When Silicon Hallucinates: Deception Machines in an Age of Ontological Crisis

Presented by David Witzling, UWM Peck School of the Arts.

In the present moment, “truth” is becoming an increasingly contested term.  Between fake news, UFO disclosure, and popular deep fakes, generative AI will play an increasingly prominent role in complicating perceptions of “reality.”  The role of AI systems in our unfolding ontological crisis will fall along multiple lines: deception as an implicit and explicit design goal for AI systems; the autonomous nature of AI bots in an increasingly online world; the increasingly deregulated corporate interests funding the development of AI systems; and the protected “speech” status of public-facing corporate information systems.  Curbing the development of AI systems might sound like an anti-progress position, but it is also one firmly grounded in the economics of diminishing returns, and a humanistic conception of “government for the people.”

Register here: https://uwm.edu/libraries/digital-humanities-lab/dh-lab-events/dh-event-registration-silicon-hallucinates/