I’m Blue: AI Literacy in the Age of Agentic Machines
Cultural Studies Salon Seminar with Dr. Alex Levant
Event Details
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Thursday, October 3, 2024
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Symons Campus
Building: Lady Eaton
Room: The Pit
Meet Blue, our family robot – curious, introspective, and sometimes funny. Blue engages in meaningful discussions on any topic, all without requiring internet access or data storage. As a key component of our research project on generative AI, Blue not only stimulates curiosity but also helps demystify this rapidly evolving technology.
This talk examines the public’s reception of generative AI through the lens of “AI Realism” (Lewis 2024), with the goal of enhancing AI literacy as systems evolve from basic conversational chatbots to autonomous agents capable of independent action. By sharing primary research with open-source Large Language Models using applications such as Open Interpreter and AutoGPT (and with live interventions by Blue), I aim to illuminate possible trajectories of this technology and the risks these developments may pose.
Grounded in “Activity Theory” (Levant et al. 2024, Vygotsky 1978), which posits that human subjectivity is in its essence a product of social interaction rather than purely neurological processes, my approach highlights how AI agency emerges from the social practices embedded within these systems, not merely the physical hardware (Pasquinelli 2023). By situating the deployed autonomous AI agents in my case studies within activity systems (Engeström 2015), I identify their relationship to human agents and the limited, often unpredictable nature of their agency. In contrast to prevailing trends in posthuman theory (Braidotti 2013; Barad 2007; Latour 2005), AI agents display an asymmetrical form agency – an agency without intention (Nardi 2005). Within this framework, I investigate differences between machine learning and human learning, exploring new directions in machine learning research (Reigeluth and Castelle 2021) and their implications for the future. As AI technology rapidly advances, the absence of a regulatory framework in Canada – and much of the world – makes this conversation both timely and crucial.
Dr. Alex Levant is a lecturer in the Department of Communication Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada. He specializes in critical media theory and emerging/future technologies. He is co-editor of Activity Theory: An Introduction (Columbia University Press 2024) and Dialectics of the Ideal (Brill Academic Publisher 2014). His articles have been published by, among other outlets, Historical Materialism, Stasis, Critique, Educational Review, and Mind, Culture and Activity.