The Good Robot IS ON STRIKE!

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THE UCU IS ON STRIKE! Learn more at https://www.ucu.cam.ac.uk/category/industrial-action/. Join University of Cambridge Christina Gaw postdoctoral researchers Eleanor Drage and Kerry Mackereth as they ask the experts: what is good technology? Is ‘good’ technology even possible? And what does feminism have to say about it? Each week, they invite scholars, industry practitioners, activists, and more to provide their unique perspective on what feminism can bring to the tech industry and the way that we think about technology. With each conversation, The Good Robot asks how feminism can provide new perspectives on technology’s biggest problems.

University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies


    • Jun 3, 2025 LATEST EPISODE
    • monthly NEW EPISODES
    • 32m AVG DURATION
    • 105 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from The Good Robot IS ON STRIKE!

    Symbiosis From Bacteria to AI with N. Katherine Hayles

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2025 35:38


    In this episode, we talk to N. Katherine Hayles who's the distinguished research professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the James B. Duke Professor Emerita from Duke University. Her prolific research focuses on the relationship between science, literature and technology in the 20th and 21st centuries. We explore her newest book, Bacteria to AI: Human Futures with Our Nonhuman Symbionts, and discuss how the biological concept of symbiosis can inform the relationships we have with AI; how a neural network experiences the world; and whether ChatGPT can be conscious.

    Transhumanist Fantasies with Alexander Thomas

    Play Episode Listen Later May 13, 2025 36:02


    In this episode, Eleanor talks to Alexander Thomas, a filmmaker and academic who leads the BA in Media Production at the University of East London. They discuss his new book about transhumanism, a philosophical movement that aims to improve human capabilities through technology and whose followers includes Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Larry Page, and also apparently the DJ Steve Aoki. Alex is himself one of the foremost commentators on transhumanism. He explores transhumanist fantasies about the future of the human, is obsessed with the extremes of possibility: they either think that AI will bring us radical abundance or total extinction. Transhumanism, Alexander says in this episode, reduces life down to information processing and intelligence, which amounts to a kind of IQ fetishism.

    Data Bodies and Arab Futurisms with Laila Shereen Sakr

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 29, 2025 25:56


    In this episode, we talk to digital media theorist and artist Laila Shereen Sakr, who also performs under the name VJ Um Amel. We discuss her work making data about the outer world both visible and emotional. We explore what Laila calls the "surveyed and targeted Arab data body" and the incredible work she does creating Arab futuristic video games that both represent Arab cultures and project them into the future. We hope you enjoy the show.

    Managing the Body through Food Law and Policy with Kyla Wazana Tompkins

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2025 38:11


    In this episode we talk to Kyla Wazana Tompkins, chair of the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality studies at the University of Buffalo. She gives incredible insight into the relationship between the history of science and the history of food law and policy. We look at legislation like the 1906 Food and Drug Act to examine how food policy shaped and was shaped by American ideas about race, national identity, and the body. From $40 LA smoothies to the fermentation practices of the Appalachian peoples, we explore how the way we eat is always bound up with race and gender, both in the past and in the present. 

    Re-imagining Voice Assistants with Stina Hasse Jørgensen and Frederik Juutilainen

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 11, 2025 33:46


    To develop voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, companies spend years investigating what sounds like a human voice and what doesn't. But what we've ended up with is just one possibility of the kinds of voices that we could be interacting with. In this episode, we talked to sound engineer Frederik Juutilainen, and Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen, Stina Hasse Jørgensen, about their participation in [multi'vocal], an experimental research project that created an alternative voice assistant by asking people at a rock festival in Denmark to speak into a portable recording box. We talk about voice assistants' inability to stutter, lisp and code switch, and whether a voice can express multiple personalities, genders and ages. 

    Critiquing Tech through Comedy with Laura Allcorn

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 11, 2025 32:47


    In this episode, we go shopping with artist and performer, Laura Allcorn. We enter into her practice, which is called the Institute for Comedic Inquiry, to learn how she pairs humour and entertainment with participatory public engagement methods to raise awareness about bizarre and dangerous uses of AI.  Laura uses comedy to skewer all manner of ethically questionable technologies, from gait surveillance to shopping algorithms. We participate in one of Laura's performances in this episode, 'SKU-MARKET', an algorithmic shopping platform that promises to know you better than you know yourself. Stay tuned for what the algorithm says about us...

    Surfing the Web in Sync with the Sun with Anne Pasek

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 21, 2025 28:45


    In this episode, we talk to Anne Pasek, the Canada Research Chair in Media Culture and the Environment, and an Associate Professor between the Department of Cultural Studies and the School of the Environment at Trent University. We love Anne for lots of reasons, not least because she has a 50 watt solar panel, a little Raspberry Pi computer, and an acid battery, all in her backyard, hosting a server. Together we discuss pleasurable ways of responding to climate anxiety,  what would happen if the internet wasn't always on, but instead functioned in tandem with the sun, and why addressing climate crisis isn't necessarily about living with less, but learning to live in sync.

    Using Feminist Chatbots to Fight Trolls With Sarah Ciston

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 7, 2025 27:11


    In this episode, we talk to Sarah Ciston, an artist, coder, writer, and critical AI scholar. We asked Sarah to talk about this badass chatbot they created called Ladymouth, which responds to trolls and incels on hate forums. We discussed the difficult labor of content moderation and the long lasting effects of trying to do feminist work online. We also talk about the surprising things that incels and feminists have in common and whether you can use AI to change people's minds and establish common humanity at scale. 

    Resisting Mental Health Ward Surveillance with Stop Oxevision

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 24, 2024 30:46


    In this episode we talk to two activists, Hat and Nell, from the organisation Stop Oxevision, who are fighting against the rollout of surveillance technologies used on mental health wards in the United Kingdom (UK). We explore how surveillance on mental health wards affects patients who never know exactly when they're being watched, and how surveillance technologies in mental health wards are implemented within a much wider context of unequal power relationships. We also reflect on resistance, solidarity, and friendship as well as the power of activism to share information and combat oppressive technologies. Please note that this episode does contain distressing content, including references to self harm. 

    Lithium Extraction in the Atacama with Sebastián Lehuedé

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 10, 2024 31:51


    In this episode, we talk to Sebastián Lehuedé, a Lecturer in Ethics, AI, and Society at King's College London. We talk about data activism in Chile, how water-intensive lithium extraction affects people living in the Atacama desert, the importance of reflexive research ethics, and an accidental Sunday afternoon shot of tequila. 

    Machine Vision with Jill Walker Rettberg

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 26, 2024 23:13


    In this episode, we talked to Jill Walker Rettberg, Professor of Digital Culture at the University of Bergen in Norway. In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about machine vision's origins in polished volcanic glass, whether or not we'll actually have self-driving cars, and that famous photo-shopped Mother's Day Photo released by Kate Middleton in March, 2024. 

    Art, Technology and Justice with Yasmine Boudiaf

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 12, 2024 31:12


    In this episode, we talk to Yasmine Boudiaf, a researcher, artist and creative technologist who uses technology in beautiful and interesting ways to challenge and redefine what we think of as 'good'. We discuss her wide-ranging art projects, from using AI to create a library of Mediterranean hand gestures through to her project Ways of Machine Seeing, which explored how machine vision systems are being taught to 'see'. Throughout the episode, we explore how Yasmine creatively uses technology to challenge the colonial gaze and the predominance of Western European ideas and concepts in ethics. Note: this episode was recorded in Summer 2023

    Gut Feminism and Feminist Approaches to Biology with Elizabeth Wilson

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 29, 2024 35:38


    In this episode we talk to Elizabeth Wilson, a professor of gender, sexuality and women's studies at Emory University, a leading scholar on the intersections between feminism and biology, and the author of Gut Feminism. We talk about everything from what feminism can learn from biology to TERFs (trans exclusionary radical feminists), penises, Freud and technology. Note: this episode was recorded in Spring 2023. 

    Janneke Parrish on Worker Solidarity and Why Tech Unions Matter

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 15, 2024 33:00


    In this episode, we speak to Janneke Parrish, who's one of the co founders of Apple Together, a solidarity union at Apple.  Apple fired Parish on the 14th of October 2021.  Since she's written an incredible book, continues to be an advisor to Apple together, and is now studying law.  We talk about how Apple's culture of silence underlies its aim to surprise and delight the customer, how companies should listen to their workers, and how to be diplomatic and dignified in the face of an institution that is trying to crush you at work.

    Hot Take: Does AI Know How You Feel?

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 1, 2024 25:59


    In this episode, we chat about coming back from summer break, and discuss a research paper recently published by Kerry and the AI ethicist and researcher Os Keyes called "The Infopolitics of Feeling: How race and disability are configured in Emotion Recognition Technology". We discuss why AI tools that promise to be able to read our emotions from our faces are scientifically and politically suspect. We then explore the ableist foundations of what used to be the most famous Emotion AI firm in the world: Affectiva. Kerry also explains how the Stop Asian Hate and Black Lives Matters protests of 2020 inspired this research project, and why she thinks that emotion recognition technologies have no place in our societies. 

    The EU AI Act Part 2, with Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West from AI NOW

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 17, 2024 31:33


    In this episode, we talk to Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West of the AI Now Institute, who are the co directors of this leading policy think tank. In the episode, which is the second installment of our EU AI Act series, Amba and Sarah explore why different tech policy narratives matter, the difference between the US and the EU regulatory landscape, why this idea that AI is simply outstripping regulation is an outdated maxim, and then finally, their policy wish list for 2024.

    The EU AI Act Part 1, with Caterina and Daniel from Access Now

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 3, 2024 36:32


    In this episode, we talk to Daniel Leufer and Caterina Rodelli from Access Now, a global advocacy organization that focuses on the impact of the digital on human rights. As leaders in this field, they've been working hard to ensure that the European Union's AI Act doesn't undermine human rights or indeed fundamental democratic values. They share with us how the EU AI act was put together, the Act's particular downfalls, and where the opportunities are for us as citizens or as digital rights activists to get involved and make sure that it's upheld by companies across the world. Note: this episode was recorded back in February 2024. 

    What on Earth Is Ethical Maths? with Maurice Chiodo

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2024 38:42


    We often think that maths is neutral or can't be harmful, because after all, what could numbers do to hurt us? In this episode, we talk to Dr. Maurice Chiodo, a mathematician at the University of Cambridge, who's now based at the Center for Existential Risk. He tells us why maths can actually throw out big ethical issues. Take the atomic bomb or the maths used by Cambridge Analytica to influence the Brexit referendum or the US elections. Together, we explore why it's crucial that we understand the role that maths plays in unethical AI.Follow our IG shenanigans: https://www.instagram.com/thegoodrobotpodcast/?locale=hi_INTweet us: https://twitter.com/thegoodrobot1?lang=enWatch our TikTok adventures: https://www.tiktok.com/@thegoodrobotpodcastListen here: https://open.spotify.com/show/5jbYieHj1QrykdQUeCVpOR or https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-good-robot/id1570237963We have the best newsletter full of AI updates and reading recs! https://tech.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?

    Can Technology Save us from Housework? with Helen Hester

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 14, 2024 37:08 Transcription Available


    This is a special live episode because Kerry is talking to Professor Helen Hester at the tech transformed conference in London. Helen is a leading thinker of feminism technology and the future of work, and she explores the history of domestic technologies- so technology used around the house. It's really important that we understand that technologies like the washing machine were actually not as liberatory for women as we'd like to think. In fact, they may have actually prevented women from rising up against domestic labor. Helen also talks about how medical care is increasingly being outsourced to home spaces, and why smart home technology is making our lives more convenient, but not necessarily less laborious.Follow our IG shenanigans: https://www.instagram.com/thegoodrobo...Tweet us: https://twitter.com/thegoodrobot1?lan...Watch our TikTok adventures: /thegoodrobotpodcast  

    Poisoning AI and Silencing Alexa with Heather Zheng

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2024 28:28


    In this episode, we talk to Heather Zheng, who makes technologies that stop everyday surveillance. This includes bracelets that stopped devices from listening and on you, to more secure biometric technologies that can protect us by identifying us by for example, our dance moves. Most famously, Zheng is one of the computer scientists behind Nightshade, which helps artists protect their work by 'poisoning' AI training data sets.  This episode includes an ad for the What Next|TBD podcast.

    Gamergate, Harassment, and Feminist Design with Caroline Sinders

    Play Episode Listen Later May 29, 2024 36:30


    In this episode we talk to Caroline Sinders, the human rights researcher, an artist, and the founder of convocation, design and research. We begin by talking  about Gamergate, when women were harassed for being gamers.  We also talk about what it's like doing high risk research about abusive misogynists online and experiences of doxing. Just to give you a heads up. We do talk about online harassment in today's episode. If you're facing online harassment and you need immediate help Caroline's organization offers pro bono support, so just email, rapid@convocation.design. And they'll get back to you. This episode includes an ad for the What Next|TBD podcast.

    The curse of online beauty culture with Ellen Atlanta

    Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2024 33:57


    We're expected to look amazing online, but also natural. We're fighting against the gender pay gap, but also spend thousands on cosmetics. In this episode, Ellen Atlanta talks us through the paradoxes of feminism and beauty in the digital sphere.This episode includes an ad for the What Next|TBD podcast.

    Isabella Rosner on Needlework and History's Hidden Technologies

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2024 33:40


    In this episode, we talk to Dr. Isabella Rosner,  a curator at the Royal School of Needlework and a research consultant at Witney Antiques. Isabella tells us about the evolution of embroidery as a technology, and the complex relationship between needlework and feminism. We use this history to shed light on technology and feminism today.This episode includes an ad for the What Next|TBD podcast.

    Darren Byler on how China surveils Uyghur Muslims

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2024 27:11


    In this episode, we talked to Darren Byler, author of Terror Capitalism and In the Camps, Life in China's High Tech Penal Colony. We discussed his in depth research on Uyghur Muslims in China and the role played by technology in their persecution. If you're just listening to this on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, you can now watch us on YouTube at The Good Robot Podcast.This episode includes an ad for the What Next|TBD podcast.

    Thuy Linh Tu on the Racial History of Dermatology

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 12, 2024 28:18


    In this episode we talk to Thuy Linh Thu, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU. We talk about how good technology disperses power, while bad technology concentrates power, the racial history of dermatology,  including the connections between the Vietnam War, medical experimentation on incarcerated men in the U. S., and retinol creams,. Please note that this episode contains references to medical experimentation and racial violence.This episode includes an ad for the What Next|TBD podcast.

    Hot Take: The Good Robot BOOK!

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2024 29:46


    In this very special Good Robot hot take we talk about our new book, The Good Robot: Why Technology Needs Feminism. It's a beautiful new illustrated book where the top scholars, activists, artists, writers, technologists, all come together to respond to the prompt: good technology is... Kerry and Eleanor chat about getting its illustrations as tattoos, and you can vote for which one you think we should get tattooed. And then we have some more serious conversations about why good technology is always complicit, whether that be a blood glucose monitor, the Dyson Air Wrap, a Tangle Teezer, a water purifier or Kerry's option: knitting needles. The book has just launched online and in stores. So you can find it at your local bookshop. We know that it stocked in Waterstones, hers. Blackwells, Pages of Hackney... and of course this wouldn't be an episode on the complicities of good technology without saying that you can also find it on Amazon. This episode includes an ad for the What Next|TBD podcast.

    Shannon Vallor on feminist care ethics, techno-virtues and vices, and the 'AI Mirror'

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2024 31:23


    In this episode we chat to Shannon Vallor, the Bailey Gifford professor in the ethics and data of AI at the University of Edinburgh and the Director for the Centre for Technomoral Futures. We talk about feminist care ethics; technologies, vices and virtues; why Aristotle believed that the people who make technology should be excluded from citizenship; and why we still don't have the kinds of robots that we imagined that we'd have in the early 2000s. We also discuss Shannon's new book, The AI Mirror, which is now available for pre-order. This episode includes an ad for the What Next|TBD podcast.

    Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna on Why You Shouldn't Believe the AI Hype

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 6, 2024 29:18


     In this episode, we talk to Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna. AI ethics legends and now the co-hosts of the Mystery AI Hype Theatre 3000 podcast which is a new podcast where they dispel the hype storm around AI. Emily is a professor of linguistics at university of Washington and the co-author of that stochastic parrots paper that you may have heard of, because two very important people in the Google AI ethics team allegedly got fired over it, and that's Timnit Gebru and Meg Mitchell. And Alex Hanna is the director of research at the Distributed AI Research Institute known by its acronym, DAIR, which is now run by Timnit. In this episode, they argue that we should stop using the term AI altogether, and that the world might be better without text to image systems like DALL·E and Midjourney. They tell us how the AI hype agents are getting high on their own supply, and give some advice for young people going into tech careers.

    Melissa Heikkilä on Why the Stories We Tell About AI Matter

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2024 27:05


    This week we chat to Melissa Heikkilä, a senior tech reporter for MIT Tech review, about ChatGPT, image generation, porn, and the stories we tell about AI. We hope you enjoy the show.

    Rebecca Woods on Large Language Models, Language and Meaning, and How Children Learn Languages

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 9, 2024 45:15


    In this episode, we talked to Rebecca Woods, a Senior Lecturer in Language and Cognition at Newcastle University.  We have an amazing chat about language learning in AI, and she tells us how language is crucial to how ChatGPT functions. She's also an expert in how children learn languages, and she compares this to teaching AI how to process languages. 

    Hot Take: Happy Holidays & a new book from Eleanor!

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 26, 2023 31:19


    Happy holidays from your favourite jingle belles at the Good Robot podcast!  In this episode we celebrate both the holidays and Eleanor's new book, The Planetary Humanism of European Women's Science Fiction: An Experience of the Impossible, which is a history of women's utopian science fiction from 1666 to 2016. We talk about the ways that women have imagined better places and times and worse ones throughout history, as well as what utopia means politically and why we need it, lesbian bacteria, Hitchcock's The Birds, and weird deep sea fish..

    Jess Wade on Rewriting Wikipedia

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2023 35:05


    In this episode we talk to British physicist Jess Wade about the 1923 Wikipedia pages (and counting) she's created and edited in her aim to put more women and more people of colour onto the online encyclopaedia.  

    Hot Take: Can you own your data?

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 4, 2023 38:15


    In this episode we welcome Eleanor back from Slovenia, where she was speaking at a conference on digital sovereignty. But what is digital sovereignty, and what does it mean for you and your data? 

    Arzu Geybulla on Digital Authoritarianism and Press Freedom

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 28, 2023 36:59 Transcription Available


     In this episode, we talked to Azerbaijani journalist Arzu Geybulla, a specialist on digital authoritarianism and its implications on human rights and press freedoms in Azerbaijan. She now lives in self-imposed exile in Istanbul. Aside from writing for big publications like Al Jazeera, Eurasianet, Foreign Policy Democracy Lab, she also founded Azerbaijan Internet Watch and is writing a political memoir about a lost generation of civil society artists in Azerbaijan. We chat to Arzu about Azerbaijan's use of technology to go after diasporic community members or people who've been exiled from the country, how women are more often targeted than men, subliminal propaganda, misinformation and censorship in the recent Turkish elections, and the importance of tracking and mapping internet censorship and surveillance in authoritarian states.

    K Allado-McDowell on technology, psychedelics and healing

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2023 36:54


      In this episode, we speak to K Allado-McDowell a writer, speaker, and musician. They've written three books and an opera libretto, and they've established the artists and machine intelligence program at Google AI. We talk about good technology as healing, the relationship between psychedelics and technology, utopianism and the counter-cultural movements in the Bay Area, and the economics of Silicon Valley. 

    Giada Pistilli on good corporations, AI ethics and value pluralism

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 31, 2023 36:26


    In this episode, we talk to Giada Pistilli, Principal Ethicist at Hugging Face, which is the company that Meg Mitchell joined, following her departure from Google. Giada is also completing her PhD in philosophy and ethics of applied conversational AI at Sorbonne University. We talk about value pluralism and AI, which means building AI according to the values of different groups of people. We also explore what it means for an AI company to actually take AI ethics really seriously as well as the state of feminism in France right now

    Matt Mahmoudi on Facial Recognition and Surveillance in Palestine

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 17, 2023 38:20 Transcription Available


    In this episode, we talk to Dr. Matt Mahmoudi, a researcher and advisor on artificial intelligence and human rights at Amnesty International, and an affiliated lecturer at the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. We discuss how AI is being used to survey Palestinians in Hebron and East Jerusalem, both in their bedrooms and in their streets, which Dutch and Chinese companies are supporting this surveillance, and how Israeli security forces have been pivotal to the training of US police. We also think about creative resistance projects like plastering stickers on cameras to notify passes by that they're being watched.

    Hot Take: Fighting Fears and Fantasies of East Asia (and AI)

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 4, 2023 31:24 Transcription Available


    In this episode, we hear all about Kerry's trip to Japan (spoiler alert: she loved it) and explore her work on anti-Asian racism and AI. Kerry explains what the very long word ‘techno-Orientalism' means and how fears and fantasies of East Asia or the so-called ‘Orient' shape Western approaches to technology and AI. We chat about how US sci-fi genres like cyberpunk use imagery from East and South East Asia to connote scary, dystopian futures where the ‘human' is indistinguishable from the ‘machine', and how this mimics old stereotypes about East Asian people as ‘mechanical' or ‘machinic'. 

    Hayleigh Bosher on Generative AI, Creativity, and what AI means for the Music Industry

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 26, 2023 40:00


    In this episode, we talk to Dr. Hayleigh Bosher, Associate Dean and Reader in intellectual property law at Brunel University and host of the podcast Whose Song is it Anyway?, a podcast on the intersections of IP [intellectual property] and the music industry. Hayleigh gives us some great insight into tomorrow's legal disputes over AI and music copyright. She tells us why AI can never create an original song, what it takes to sue a generative AI company for creating music in the style of someone, and why generative AI risks missing the point about what creativity is.

    Meredith Broussard on Why Sexism, Racism and Ableism in Tech are 'More than a Glitch'

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 12, 2023 38:28 Transcription Available


    In this episode we talk to Meredith Broussard,  data journalism professor at the Arthur L. Carter Institute at New York University. She's also the author of Artificial Unintelligence, which made waves following its release in 2018 by claiming that AI was nothing more than really fancy math. We talk about why we need to bring a little bit more friction back into technology and her latest book More Than a Glitch, which argues that AI that's not designed to be accessible is bad for everyone, in the same way that raised curbs between the pavement and the street that you have to go down to cross the road makes urban outings difficult for lots of people, not just wheelchair users.

    Grace Dillon on Indigenous Sciences, Technologies, and Science Fiction

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 1, 2023 35:37


    In this episode we chat to Grace DiIlon, Professor in the Indigenous Nations Studies Department at Portland State University. Grace, an Anishinaabe cultural critic and a phenomenal storyteller in her own right, gives an overview of the fiction and science books by indigenous writers doing very cool things. We talk about apocalypse and healing, ceremonial science, and the genre of native slipstream. 

    Mar Hicks on the Unexpected History of Computing

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 15, 2023 33:25


    In this episode, we talk to Mar Hicks, an Associate Professor of Data Science at the University of Virginia and author of Programmed Inequality: How Britain discarded Women Technologists and Lost its Edge in computing. Hicks talks to us about the lessons that the tech industry can learn from histories of computing, for example: how sexism is an integral feature of technological systems and not just a bug that can be extracted from them; how techno-utopianism can stop us from building better technologies; when looking to the past is useful and when it's not helpful; the dangers of the 'move fast and break things' approach where you just build technology just to see what happens; and whether regulatory sandboxes are sufficient in making sure that tech isn't deployed unsafely on an unsuspecting public.

    Hot Take: Twitter is to X as Barbie is to Ken

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 1, 2023 23:16


    Welcome to this week's Hot Take, where your hosts Kerry and Eleanor give their candid opinion on the latest in tech news. This week they discuss the rebranding of Twitter as X and how people like Elon Musk have an outsized impact on the daily technologies that we use, on the kinds of technologies that get made and created, and on the kinds of needs that get prioritized when it comes to user preferences and desires. From X to the Barbie movie, they explore why diversity matters in the tech industry, as well as why trying to understand what ‘diversity' is and what it means in context is much trickier than it sounds. 

    Peter Hershock on Buddhist Approaches to Machine Consciousness

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 18, 2023 42:25 Transcription Available


     We talk to Peter Hershock, director of the Asian Studies Development Program and coordinator of the Humane AI Initiative at the East-West Center in Honolulu. We talked to Peter about the kinds of misconceptions and red herrings that shape public interpretations of machine consciousness and what we can gain from approaching the question of machine consciousness from a Buddhist perspective. Our journey takes us from Buddhist teaching about relational dynamics that tell us that nothing exists independently from someone or something else to how to make the best tofu larb. 

    Hot Take: Detecting Sexuality with AI is Fake Science

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 11, 2023 35:18


    In this week's Good Robot Hot Takes, Kerry and Eleanor talk about a group of scientists in Zurich that tried to measure a correlation between brain activity and sexuality using AI. This smacks not only of previous attempts to use AI to try and ‘read' people's sexuality, but also of dangerous 19th and 20th century race science. We talk about how the language of science is weaponised against queer people, why there are no real scientific foundations to using AI to detect sexuality, and why science needs to think about sexuality not as fixed or static but wild and infinite. 

    Karen Levy on Worker Surveillance and the US Trucking Industry

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 4, 2023 29:04


    In this episode we chat to Karen Levy, Associate Professor of Information Science at Cornell University and author of Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance. Karen is an expert in the changing face of long distance driving - she spent ten years doing research with truck drivers. So she's been looking at how surveillance and automation are changing what it means to be a  trucker in the USA. We talk about how truckers are responding to new AI technologies monitoring their behaviour, and what the future holds for the trucking industry. We recorded this a while ago so it's an audio-only episode. 

    Hot Take: Can AI De-Bias Hiring?

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 27, 2023 34:14


    Welcome to our third episode of the Good Robot Hot Takes. Every two weeks Kerry and Eleanor will be giving their hot take on some of the biggest issues in tech. If you're a graduate or a jobseeker, this is the episode for you because this week we talk about AI that's being used for recruitment. That's right, AI is being used to assess your performance in an interview. In fact companies are claiming that their tools can read your personality by looking at your face, and that this can strip away a candidate's race and gender.  We hope you enjoy the show.

    Ofri Cnaani on Art, Digital Archives and Activism

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 20, 2023 29:23


    In this episode we chat with Ofri Cnaani, an artist and associate lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London. Artists are doing amazing things in tech spaces, not just working with tech but also using art to explore how our world is infused with data. Ofri discusses some of her projects with us, including her investigation of the fire that destroyed the National Museum of Brazil in 2018, which prompted a massive crowdsourced appeal for photos of museum exhibits taken by visitors, and her Statistical Bodies project, which humorously looks at what kind of data about bodies aren't yet useful, like jealousy and social fatigue, or what is impossible to capture about the body. 

    Hot Take: Most AI Scientists in Films Suck

    Play Episode Play 48 sec Highlight Listen Later Jun 13, 2023 27:47 Transcription Available


    Welcome to our second episode of the Good Robot Hot Takes, where every week Kerry and Eleanor give you their spicy opinions about top issues in tech. This week we talk about science fiction films, why we love Aliens and Sigourney Weaver, how female AI scientists and professionals are represented on screen, how this contributes to the unequal gender dynamics of the AI industry, why Iron Man's Tony Stark sucks, and why he and Ex Machina's Nathan Bateman aren't just bad apples but an epidemic of conceited AI scientists on screen.

    Caroline Bassett and Sharon Webb on Full Stack Feminism and the Digital Humanities

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 6, 2023 35:18


    From using computers to process the work of Thomas Aquinas to using facial recognition to compare portraits of Shakespeare, computational techniques have long been applied to humanities research. These projects are now called the digital humanities, and today we're interviewing two major figures in this discipline. We talk to Dr Sharon Webb, Senior Lecturer in Digital Humanities at the University of Sussex, History Department and a Director of the Sussex Humanities Lab, and Caroline Bassett, Professor of Digital Humanities in the Faculty of English and the Director of Cambridge Digital Humanities at the University of Cambridge. They tell us about full stack feminism, hidden histories of women's involvement in computing, and what it means to bring feminism into the study of technology.  

    Hot Take: The Future of Life's Call for a Pause on 'Giant AI' - Doomsday or Distraction?

    Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2023 34:57


    Welcome to our new format: The Good Robot Hot Takes! In these fun, lively, conversational episodes, we (Eleanor and Kerry) discuss some of the biggest issues in tech, from ChatGPT, and the sexy fembot problem in Hollywood film, to why predictive policing is a scam and why gender recognition is garbage.This week we're talking about the Future of Life Institute's open letter calling for an AI 'pause' in the wake of ChatGPT. We explore framing large language models as 'foundational' and therefore inevitable, the dangers of AI 'race' rhetoric, why AI's long term harms are given way more attention than its more immediate ones, and how race and gender shape what 'counts' as existential risk.EDIT - This episode has been re-uploaded to make a correction. Bostrom is associated with the Future of Life Institute, but he is not the Founder or a Founding member, as we originally stated. 

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