2023.Jul.25

REPORTS

Report on the 20th B’AI Book Club
Mark Shepard (2022) There Are No Facts: Attentive Algorithms, Extractive Data Practices, and the Quantification of Everyday Life.

On June 27, 2023, the 20th meeting of the B’AI Book Club, which is a book review session by project members of the B’AI Global Forum, was held. During this meeting, Project Researcher Kayoung Kim reviewed Mark Shepard’s book titled There Are No Facts: Attentive Algorithms, Extractive Data Practices, and the Quantification of Everyday Life (2022).

The author, specializing in architecture and media research, examines how today’s technologies, such as AI based on big data and algorithms, and social media deepen the loss of objective truths and the dismantling of common ground of understanding among people. The author substantiates this with various examples. The first part of the book focuses on fake news and map-making, revealing that even news and maps, seemingly reflecting the objective reality, are not objective truths but products of social and political processes. Moreover, it critically discusses how these processes shaping reality are increasingly mediated by technologies like AI, influencing human thinking and everyday life in various ways. The subsequent part explores how people’s bodies and personal data are exploited under the rhetoric of convenience, personalized information provision, and safety assurance. Specific cases are analyzed, including AI assistants within households, algorithm-based credit scoring, smart city construction plans based on people’s behavioral data, and various technologies employed for surveillance and behavior restriction during the Covid-19 pandemic. These cases cover a wide range from households to urban spaces, and even on a global scale, illustrating how technology quantifies, categorizes, and manipulates human behavior at various levels.

The reviewer mentioned that the fundamental stance of the book, which emphasizes that technology is by no means neutral but rather reinforces bias, discrimination, and divisiveness, aligns with B’AI’s awareness of these issues. Particularly, she agreed with the concerns about people’s attitude in the post-truth era, that is, an abandonment of endeavor to distinguish between facts and fakes. The seriousness of this issue becomes evident when considering technologies like Deepfakes, which are being used for digital space-related crimes, such as sexual violence. On the other hand, regarding the distinction between truth/falseness and authentic/fake, a participant pointed out that it is also a philosophical discussion that questions the very existence of “truth” itself. Another participant suggested that there are cases where judgments must be made based on truthfulness, as well as cases where this criterion is not applicable, hence, we need to consider them separately.

In addition, participants raised concerns about experimental initiatives like smart city construction being predominantly led by corporations, which often clash with the ethical standards researchers emphasize. The discussion touched upon how to bridge the gap between profit-driven objectives and ethical considerations. Moreover, there were criticism towards people’s increasingly indifferent attitudes towards personal information, offering it to companies in exchange for the benefits when using online services, which the author refers to as “Data Blasé.”

Engaging in practical discussions on how to improve such situations aligns precisely with the mission of B’AI. The various points presented in this book and the discussions exchanged during the book review session are expected to be highly informative and serve as valuable references for addressing these challenges in the future.