Between Power and Myth – A Critical Analysis of Current AI Narratives

This presentation explores the discourse surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), which continues to evolve in the wake of ChatGPT’s release. It challenges the pervasive narratives that shape society’s engagement with AI, shedding light on key topics such as agency and decision-making, autonomy, truthfulness, knowledge processing, prediction, general-purpose capability, neutrality and objectivity, apolitical optimization, groundbreaking impacts on sustainability, democratization, mass unemployment, and the dualistic portrayal of AI as a harbinger of either a social utopia or dystopia. These narratives are critically analyzed based on insights from computer science, critical data and algorithm studies, data protection theory, as well as the philosophy of mind and semiotics. To adequately analyze the narratives presented, the lecture first addresses the historical and technical contextualization of the AI discourse itself. It then introduces the term “Zeitgeist AI” to critique the imprecise and misleading use of the term “AI” in various social contexts. Through a nuanced discussion of common narratives, the lecture contextualizes and questions the frequently assumed sociopolitical implications of AI and, using detailed examples, uncovers the inherent political, colonial, and power-laden structures in AI applications and infrastructures. The lecture concludes with a call for a more informed approach to AI, highlights pressing problems ignored by the narratives discussed, and proposes new narratives that recognize AI as a human-controlled extractive tool that is necessarily subject to societal decision-making and requires clear boundaries.