Teach-in: All AI's on Rafah - 'AI' as Bread, Butter and Circuses of Contemporary Fascism

af Studerende Mod Besættelsen

'AI' is a slippery topic. How do we define it? How does it actually work? What future is it taking us into? Are there other futures we may wish to build? In this talk, speaker Denise Utochkin (they/them) will argue that the answers to these questions become apparent when one defines ‘AI’ as a political project first and foremost. They will demonstrate that, to the degree to which 'AI' can be described as a sociotechnical apparatus, it is a technology of whiteness, alienation, non-consent, and imperial capitalism; a technology uniquely resonant with neoliberal and fascistic logics; a technology whose existence is shaped by, predicated on, and perpetuates racism, classism, and colonialism.

Building on insights on the precursors to and inner workings of fascism developed by Theodor Adorno, Hannah Arendt, and Erich Fromm, as well as on contemporary analyses of the resonances between 'AI' and far-right authoritarian politics, we will look at how and to what ends the necropolitical project of 'AI' intensifies institutional thoughtlessness, aestheticises cruelty, and facilitates apocalyptic myth-making of what Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor term end times fascism. The specific aspects of the 'AI'-assisted genocide at which we will look include parts of Israel's tech stack of apartheid and murder (AI-MDSS such as Gospel and Lavender and surveillance systems such as Red Wolf), synthetic cultural production that sanitises and aestheticises genocide, the use of automation in suppressing pro-Palestinian activism, and the broader entanglement of big tech in the genocide.

The talk will be in English. Remember to bring a blanket as the talk will be held outside ❤

Academic credentials:
Denise is an undisciplined academic. They did their Bachelor's in International Business at St. Petersburg State University, then immigrated to Norway by means of doing a Master's (in Economics and Business Administration) and PhD (in computational consumer culture theory, researching online gaming communities on Reddit through a combination of several machine learning techniques, network analysis, and digital ethnography) at the Norwegian School of Economics. They are now doing a postdoc at the Copenhagen Health Complexity Center where they are developing a case for 'AI' abolition.

Program:
16:00-17:00 Talk
17:00-17:15 Break
17:15-17:45 Q&A
18:00- Dinner together

Sted

Rafah Garden, City Campus
Øster Farimagsgade 5A (easiest access to Rafah Garden from the parking lot where Nansensgade and Bartholinsgade meets)
1353 København K