Reclaiming AI Futures

The spectre of artificial intelligence looms large over us. According to the prevalent visions sold to us today, Artificial Intelligence will save us from ourselves — cut out humanity and let technology provide for our futures, mediating our interactions and our relationships with mathematical precision and computerised equanimity: 100 Smart Cities, ‘built from the internet up’, which recognise only the disciplined and data-annotated urban resident. Machines which prophesise on dishonesty and criminality and place us in an information straitjacket from which there is no escape. Technologies will mine data from the depths of our bodies and our environment, and, in turn, displace us from both.

What do these futures hold in store for us? Who do these visions of AI futures serve? How do we resist, reimagine and reclaim our technological futures? To paraphrase Ruha Benjamin, how do we imagine and craft the worlds we cannot live without, just as we dismantle the ones we cannot live within?

In early 2021, artists and activists from India were invited to reflect on the trajectory of Artificial Intelligence in India; to speculate, prophesise and craft new technological imaginaries through their art and writing, as part of Divij Joshi’s fellowship project with the Mozilla Foundation, the AI Observatory.

The resulting projects have been incorporated into the online exhibit – ‘Reclaiming AI Futures’. The projects and artworks in this exhibit span different digital media – films, gifs, written essays, interactive games, social media feeds – each of which critically reflect on AI and its political, cultural, economic and affective implications; on how technology mediates our identities, and how we might ‘reclaim’ agency from, or with, AI.

On November 23, 2021, from 7:30 – 9:00 PM, the contributors to this project will discuss their work and their visions for Reclaiming AI Futures in an online session, hosted by Divij and the Centre for Internet and Society.

Register here.

The Contributors to Reclaiming AI Futures are:

All India IT and ITeS Employee’s Union and Critter’s Collective, ‘Reclaiming AI Futures for Economic Planning’, Mixed Media (Twitter)
Brindaalakshmi K., ‘Word!’, Speculative Fiction (English and Tamil)
Daksha Dixit, Simran Singh and Kartik Handa, ‘AlgoLeela’, Gifs
diane daayan, ‘I Am AI v.2.3.’, Roleplaying Game
Paulanthony George, ‘Illustrations for the AI Observatory’, Illustrations
Shristi Singh, ‘This Scene May Contain…’, Graphic Media
Vishal Kumaraswamy, ‘your dataset won’t let me thrive’ & ‘ your dataset must die’, Video Essays