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CS92PROD
Algorithmic Revolutions: Fakery, Race, and Labor in the New Artificial Age
CHUM 357
Spring 2020
Section: 01  
Crosslisting: SISP 357

This course plays with artificial intelligence (AI) as a cultural, sociopolitical, and literary object. Course readings will begin with the observations of anthropologists at the post-WWII Macy Conferences on cybernetics. Students will put data mining and machine learning in historical context, exploring classification systems, intelligence testing, and forensic sciences. Students will also examine the reanimation of the artificial human in newer discourses of AI, such as big data and predictive policing, virtual reality and drone strikes in commercial and military operations, health and assistive technology, and play and labor on platforms like Fortnite and Mechanical Turk. Course texts will include speculative fiction on artificial life, social theories of simulation and virtuality, and new work from queer studies and critical race studies interrogating the basis for testing artificiality and humanity.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA CHUM
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (STS)
Past Enrollment Probability: Less than 50%

Last Updated on MAR-29-2024
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