A number of recent popular discourses on AI have emerged in Center-, Right-, and Left-wing circles. Both the Center and the Right generally argue that AI is “revolutionary” because it will eradicate jobs that humans supposedly do not want to do. The Left counters that AI is not revolutionary for the exact same reason, as the eradication of jobs will harm the working class. In this talk, guest speaker, Armond Towns, argues that AI is revolutionary, but not in the ways understood by the Left, Right, or Center: AI is revolutionary in that its earliest proponents built their definition of intelligence off the 18th and 19th century liberal revolutions in North America and Europe. More specifically, the intelligence of AI is intimately connected to an idealized freedom of speech, whereby a machine is deemed intelligent if it can speak, free from political and human oversight.  
 

Armond R. Towns is an associate professor in the Department of Africana Studies at Williams College. His research interests include, but are not limited to, black studies approaches to Marxism, science and technology studies, media and communication theory and history, and anti-colonial thought. He is the author of On Black Media Philosophy, published in 2022 with the University of California Press. 

Armond Townes joins the IHGC as a "For the Humanities" series speaker.  Registration for this event is not required.