Seminar (CNSC): "Techno-utopian or techno-dystopian discourses around AI"

IN3’s Communication Networks & Social Change (CNSC) research group is pleased to invite you to the Seminar: «Techno-utopian or techno-dystopian discourses around Artificial Intelligence in English-language digital media», given by Victor G. García Castañeda visiting researcher at CNSC.

The seminar will be held, in hybrid format, on Wednesday, September 18 at 10:00 (CET) in Room C1.15 of the Interdisciplinary R&I Hub (Building C).

Venue

Interdisciplinary R&I Hub (Building C - Room C1.15)
Rambla del Poblenou, 154
08018 Barcelona
Espanya

When

18/09/2024 0.00h

Organized by

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, IN3's Communication Networks & Social Change (CNSC) research group

Program

Abstract

Recent technological advances around Artificial Intelligence have caused a series of polarizing attitudes in the English-language digital media. Through a mixed sociological methodology —quantitative and qualitative— this study analyzes the media representation of technological change which, at its extremes, can be described in utopian or dystopian terms. Digital newspaper articles from three English-language media were analyzed from 2021 to 2024. The provisional results seem to indicate that journalistic representations regarding scientific discoveries and innovations related to Artificial Intelligence come from a mixture of misinformation, exaggerations of their consequences and adoption of science fiction narratives to describe this phenomenon.

Victor G. García Castañeda

Philosopher and sociologist. His research focuses on the intersections between the philosophy of technology, media studies, and the sociology of digital culture. Doctor in Philosophy from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and Master in Sociology from the Universidad Iberoamericana of Mexico City, he has taught classes at the Universidad Iberoamericana, as well as independent courses. His work has been published in academic journals and books published by the Universidad Iberoamericana, Gedisa, OÖ Landes-Kultur and Bloomsbury. He is an affiliate member of the Research Network for Philosophy and Technology and the Permanent Seminar on Rheology. He is currently a content curator of the subject Societat Digital of the Sociology degree at the UOC and visiting researcher at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) of the same university, where he carries out research on techno-utopian and techno-dystopian narratives in digital media.