Paper: 978-1-914386-16-9

eISBN: 978-1-914386-14-5

Editor Pieter Verdegem was shortlisted for best edited collection in the 2022 MeCCSA outstanding achievement awards. See https://uwestminsterpress.blog/2022/08/18/original-and-timely-uwp-title-shortlisted-for-major-academic-book-prize/ for more details.

We are entering a new era of technological determinism and solutionism in which governments and business actors are seeking data-driven change, assuming that Artificial Intelligence is now inevitable and ubiquitous. But we have not even started asking the right questions, let alone developed an understanding of the consequences. Urgently needed is debate that asks and answers fundamental questions about power. This book brings together critical interrogations of what constitutes AI, its impact and its inequalities in order to offer an analysis of what it means for AI to deliver benefits for everyone. The book is structured in three parts: Part 1, AI: Humans vs. Machines, presents critical perspectives on human-machine dualism. Part 2, Discourses and Myths About AI, excavates metaphors and policies to ask normative questions about what is ‘desirable’ AI and what conditions make this possible. Part 3, AI Power and Inequalities, discusses how the implementation of AI creates important challenges that urgently need to be addressed. Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and regional contexts, this book offers a vital intervention on one of the most hyped concepts of our times.

Pieter Verdegem is Senior Lecturer in Media Theory in the Westminster School of Media and Communication and a member of the Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI), University of Westminster, UK. His research investigates the political economy of digital media and the impact of digital technologies on society.

Critical, Digital and Social Media, Critical Perspectives, Computers, Public Policy, Political Science, Social Science

License: CC BY-NC-ND