AI, ecosystems and metaphors
(image is a Bryan Mathers sketch of my keynote)
As I mentioned in my last post, I gave a keynote at the Education After the Algorithm conference in Dublin last week. It was a thoughtful, engaging event, congrats to Eamon Costello and all involved.
A screencast of my talk is below. I concentrated on two metaphors, which I’ve blogged here previously, namely DDT and the introduction of rabbits into Australia. My intention was twofold: to highlight how the information ecosystem may be prone to some of the similar impacts from AI agents as these environmental ecosystems were to the introduction of these outside agents; to demonstrate the utility of metaphorical thinking to consider the impact of AI more generally.
I made the point that we are, rightly, wary of the introduction of chemicals and invasive species into our natural ecosystem, but remarkably cavalier about the introduction of agents into our information ecosystem. I asked whether the people in the year 2100 would look book on our current attitudes and marvel at our hubris.
Anyway, here is the talk if you’re interested:
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