Ways of Knowing

Episode 8 of Ways of Knowing -- Season 2, an audio series about the humanities.

Made by The World According to Sound and The University of Washington. This episode features the work of professor of philosophy, Sara Goering.

Episode 7 of Ways of Knowing -- Season 2, an audio series about the humanities.

Made by The World According to Sound and The University of Washington. This episode features the work of Mal Ahern, professor of cinema and media studies.

Episode 6 of Ways of Knowing -- Season 2, an audio series about the humanities.

Made by The World According to Sound and The University of Washington. This episode features the work of professor of cinema and media studies, Golden Owens.

Episode 5 of Ways of Knowing -- Season 2, an audio series about the humanities.

Made by The World According to Sound and The University of Washington. This episode features the work of professor of Math and the Comparative History of Ideas, Jayadev Athreya.

Episode 2 of Ways of Knowing -- Season 2, an audio series about the humanities.

Made by The World According to Sound and The University of Washington. This episode features the work of professor of International Studies, as well as law, societies and justice––Stephen Meyers.

Episode 2 of Ways of Knowing -- Season 2, an audio series about the humanities.

Made by The World According to Sound and The University of Washington. This episode features the work of professor of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures Hamza Zafer.

Episode 2 of Ways of Knowing -- Season 2, an audio series about the humanities.

Made by The World According to Sound and The University of Washington. This episode features the work of professor of French Richard Watts.

Episode 1 of Ways of Knowing -- Season 2, an audio series about the humanities.

Made by The World According to Sound and The University of Washington. This episode features the work of professor of English and Data Science Anna Preus.

In the previous episode, we heard how so-called artificial intelligence is being sold to the public as a revolutionary, inevitable technology that is going to completely transform society. This claim is built around the misleading metaphor of “artificial intelligence,” which equates machine processes with human intelligence. Generative AI products are being marketed as proof that machines will very soon be doing everything a human can do, but better, faster, and more efficiently. We’re being told we can’t stop this technology. Only learn to live with it.

In this episode, we’re going to show how so-called generative AI is not revolutionary. Instead, it’s an evolution of societal trends that have been a long time in the making and which were not inevitable…Things like the automation of labor, growth of mass media, and vast increases in monopoly power. By understanding this context we can get a much clearer picture of what so-called generative AI actually is, what the companies behind it are really up to, and all the ways it can affect our lives.

This is Media Objects. A Ways of Knowing podcast. Produced by the World According to Sound, in partnership with Media Studies at Cornell University. Support from the college of arts and science and the society for the humanities. Editing and academic counsel from Erik Born, Jeremy Braddock, and Paul Fleming.

Guests include Cornell professors Steven Jackson, Mendi and Keith Obadike, Daniel Susser, Lee Humphreys, and Chris Csikszentmihalyi.

With today’s so-called generative artificial intelligence, we’re being told that we have finally arrived. We’re now beginning to build true “thinking machines,” machines that will do everything a human can do, only better, faster, and more efficiently. This will change every aspect of our lives, for good…or for bad. Either way, there’s no turning back. We can’t stop generative AI. Only learn to live with it.

This is not true. Today’s machines are far more powerful than those in the past, but their so-called “intelligence” is not like yours or mine.

The belief that they can or soon will become "intelligent" is a myth being used to obscure what so-called generative AI actually is, how it works, and what the companies behind it are really up to. AI companies are using the hype around artificial intelligence to build computer infrastructure, rewrite laws, and alter norms that will fundamentally change how we work, recreate, communicate…And ultimately, how we think about what it means to be human.

None of this is inevitable. The changes being brought on by so-called generative artificial intelligence are not the result of some forward march of technological progress, but instead of decisions and values that we all have a say in.

This is Media Objects. A Ways of Knowing podcast. Produced by the World According to Sound, in partnership with Media Studies at Cornell University. Support from the college of arts and science and the society for the humanities. Editing and academic counsel from Erik Born, Jeremy Braddock, and Paul Fleming.

Guests include Cornell professors Gili Vidan and Chris Csikszentmihalyi.