A morning with Louise Amoore

Justice, health, security, and finance are some of the spheres that are using algorithms in decision-making today. While AI can be a great help in medical diagnosis, it can also introduce a racial bias in airport security checks. The researcher Louise Amoore has extensively studied the biases and limitations in the processes of producing and applying algorithms, and also the repercussions they are having in every sphere of life. More than thinking about the question of how to create “good algorithms”, we need to be aware that they are already shaping frameworks of what is desirable and what is not desirable, and of hypothetical visions of a future that, at the same time, they play a role in determining. The debate about AI then confronts us with philosophical questions about, for example, fragility and the contingency with which algorithms control and decide about our lives, and how they determine the standpoints from which we perceive and value reality.

The session has a pedagogical dossier (in Catalan) so that the students can work on the contents beforehand in the classroom and thus make the most out of the lecture.