Event 3: LASER: Decolonizing AI
LASER: De-colonizing AI On Thursday, June 1st, I attended a LASER Talks event on "Decolonizing AI". The Leonardo/ISAST LASER Talks program brings together people from various disciplines including art and science to give informal presentations about their work and "encourage contribution to the cultural environment of a region". The talk focused on the western-centric development of AI and the potential for machines to inherit the same imperialism and colonialism present in many fields, even today. Amir Baradaran is an augmented reality (AR)tist that discussed the impact of AI on the ecosystem, and more specifically, the art ecosystem. He cautioned about AI becoming the art or the artist but also encouraged the use of AI to help create and innovate. The talk I was most intrigued by, however, was by the Armenian writer and artist Mashinka Firunts Hakopian, who discussed the inheritance of historically discriminatory and euro-centric views by artificial intelligence.