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Critical AI and algorithm studies

Critical AI and algorithm studies explore the social, political, and ethical implications of AI and algorithmic decision-making, focusing on issues like bias and power asymmetries. Key texts from scholars such as Safiya Noble and Ruha Benjamin critique how AI systems perpetuate discrimination and reinforce existing inequalities. The field emphasizes the need for accountability and social justice in AI design and implementation.

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23 views

Critical AI and algorithm studies

Critical AI and algorithm studies explore the social, political, and ethical implications of AI and algorithmic decision-making, focusing on issues like bias and power asymmetries. Key texts from scholars such as Safiya Noble and Ruha Benjamin critique how AI systems perpetuate discrimination and reinforce existing inequalities. The field emphasizes the need for accountability and social justice in AI design and implementation.

Uploaded by

mandikp6033
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Critical AI and algorithm studies

Critical AI and algorithm studies examine the social,


political, and ethical implications of artificial intelligence,
machine learning, and algorithmic decision-making. This
field critiques issues such as bias, surveillance, and power
asymmetries embedded in AI systems.

Key Texts in Critical AI and Algorithm Studies:


1. Safiya Umoja Noble – Algorithms of Oppression:
How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (2018)
• Noble analyzes how search engines, particularly
Google, reinforce racial and gender biases, privileging
corporate and hegemonic interests over marginalized
perspectives. She argues that search algorithms are not
neutral but shaped by structural inequalities.
2. Ruha Benjamin – Race After Technology:
Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (2019)
• Benjamin introduces the concept of the “New Jim
Code,†describing how automated systems perpetuate
racial discrimination under the guise of neutrality. She
advocates for abolitionist approaches to AI design.
3. Wendy Hui Kyong Chun – Discriminating Data:
Correlation, Neighborhoods, and the New Politics of
Recognition (2021)
• Chun critiques the use of big data and machine
learning in reinforcing social inequalities, particularly
through predictive policing and digital redlining. She
highlights how correlation-based AI systems reproduce
discriminatory patterns.
4. Kate Crawford – Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the
Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence (2021)
• Crawford examines the material, political, and
environmental costs of AI, arguing that AI systems are not
merely technical but deeply entangled with global power
structures and resource extraction.
5. Meredith Broussard – Artificial Unintelligence: How
Computers Misunderstand the World (2018)
• Broussard critiques techno-solutionism, arguing that
AI’s limitations stem from overconfidence in its
capabilities, often ignoring structural problems that
cannot be solved computationally.

Key Figures and Their Work:


1. Safiya Noble
• Algorithms of Oppression (2018) is her key work,
where she shows how search engines amplify racist and
sexist stereotypes. Noble argues that AI systems reinforce
existing power structures rather than democratizing access
to information.
2. Joy Buolamwini
• Founder of the Algorithmic Justice League,
Buolamwini is known for her research on racial and
gender bias in facial recognition systems. Her paper
Gender Shades (2018, co-authored with Timnit Gebru)
demonstrated that AI systems perform significantly worse
on darker-skinned and female faces, revealing systemic
biases in commercial AI products.
3. Alex Hanna
• A sociologist and former AI ethics researcher at
Google, Hanna critiques the industry’s approach to
fairness and bias, arguing that AI ethics needs to be rooted
in social justice and labor activism. She has also
contributed to discussions on data colonialism and the
ways AI systems exploit marginalized communities.
4. Timnit Gebru
• Co-author of Gender Shades, Gebru is a leading voice
in AI ethics. She was forced out of Google after raising
concerns about the environmental and social harms of
large-scale language models (On the Dangers of
Stochastic Parrots, 2021, co-authored with Emily Bender
and others). She advocates for a more accountable and
less extractive approach to AI.
5. Wendy Hui Kyong Chun
• In Discriminating Data (2021), Chun argues that AI
and big data reinforce racial and social segregation
through their reliance on historical correlations. She
critiques the tendency of AI systems to amplify past
inequalities rather than offering new possibilities for
equity.

These scholars provide critical perspectives on AI,


challenging the assumption of algorithmic neutrality and
highlighting the deep entanglements of AI systems with
social injustices.

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