Talking to Artificial Intelligence

We have been talking about robots and artificial intelligence forever, or so it sometimes seems. Images of smart machinery have inhabited our thinking and our literary/cultural imaginations long before technology made such objects possible. It is tempting to keep such things separate – the art and science of the robot, or of the artificial intelligence that underpins it. However, there are reasons to thread them back together. After all, the AI of our imagination, is the AI we have built. In this talk, anthropologist and technologist, Dr. Genevieve Bell explores the meaning of “intelligence” within the context of machines & its cultural impact on humans and their relationships. She interrogates AI not just as a technical agenda but as a cultural category in order to understand the ways in which the story of AI is connected to the history of human culture.