Advanced Block II

Mapping cross-cultural visions on Artificial Intelligence

Lethal-Autonomous Weapons, Facial Recognition Software, DeepFakes, Big Data, Self-Driving Cars, Social Media Algorithms - our lives are increasingly governed by the black boxes of Artificial Intelligence. These developments carry serious ethical implications when it comes to questions of AI safety, privacy, accountability, and ultimately governance.

There's a wide-range of discourse around questions of making AI more ethical. However, in the same way that data sets that are used to train AI algorithms carry inherent biases within them, the social construction of the meaning of AI and all its implications are inherently biased as well. In order to overcome these biases we need to first acknowledge them, second, uncover alternative visions on AI found in different cultures, and third, establish more inclusive discourses representing this variety of perspectives.

In the presentation “Mapping cross-cultural visions on Artificial Intelligence” Maurice will outline how the meaning of AI as a technology is socially constructed and which role cultural factors play in this process.

Through exploring the case study of Japan in contrast to Western-centric perspectives, he will give a practical example on how different cultures create different meanings surrounding technologies. Finally the lecture will conclude with the implications this carries for the development of ethical AI governance structures that are sensitive to cross-cultural perspectives.


About the lecturer:

  • Maurice Jones is a digital arts curator and STS researcher based in Tokyo, Japan

  • Currently he is acting as Artistic Director of the digital arts festival MUTEK.JP

  • Interested in: Cross-cultural perspectives on technology, AI governance, intercultural cooperation

  • Experience in digital arts curation and production, policy research, journalism and business consultancy

  • More: Find Maurice on LinkedIn