Secret Agents: A Psychoanalytic Critique of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

“Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Intelligence” (GOFAI), which was based on a symbolic information-processing model of the mind, has been superseded by neural-network models to describe and create intelligence. Rather than a symbolic representation of the world, the idea is to mimic the structure of the brain in electronic form, whereby artificial neurons draw their own connections during a self-learning process. Critiquing such a brain physiological model, the following article takes up the idea of a “psychoanalysis of things” and applies it to artificial intelligence and machine learning. This approach may help to reveal some of the hidden layers within the current A. I. debate and hints towards a central mechanism in the psycho-economy of our socio-technological world: The question of “Who speaks?”, central for the analysis of paranoia, becomes paramount at a time, when algorithms, in the form of artificial neural networks, operate more and more as secret agents.
Original languageEnglish
JournalDigital Culture & Society
Volume4
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)29-44
Number of pages16
ISSN2364-2114
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27.07.2018

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Sustainability Accounting and Reporting: Development, Linkages and Reflection
  2. Treatment of comorbid alcohol use disorders and depression with cognitive-behavioural therapy and motivational interviewing
  3. Bottom-up effects of plant diversity on multitrophic interactions in a biodiversity experiment
  4. Influence of 8-weeks of supervised static stretching or resistance training of pectoral major muscles on maximal strength, muscle thickness and range of motion
  5. Non-linear effects of comparison income in quit decisions: status versus signal !
  6. Bimodal IT
  7. Objektaffekte
  8. More than only skin deep: Appearance self-concept predicts most of secondary school students’ self-esteem
  9. Spatial characterization of coastal marine social-ecological systems
  10. Efficacy of gamified Applications of mental Health Promotion and Prevention
  11. Preparing Pre-service Teachers for Inclusive Education
  12. Influence of strontium, silicon and calcium additions on the properties of the AM50 alloy
  13. Relict populations in ancient woodlands
  14. Spielt Charlie Parker in den Wind oder mit ihm?
  15. Cues from Facial Expressions for Emotional Interfaces
  16. Cyberspace Battleground
  17. Erstes und zweites Zuhause
  18. Investigation of food waste valorization through sequential lactic acid fermentative production and anaerobic digestion of fermentation residues
  19. Environmental Indicators for Business
  20. Ronald F. Inglehart
  21. Surviving global change? Agricultural Interest Groups in Comparative Perspective
  22. Towards a decision support system for radiotherapy business continuity in a pandemic crisis
  23. Why Do Extreme Work Hours Persist?
  24. Marktorientierte Markenbewertung
  25. Cost and schedule overruns in large hydropower dams
  26. Genetic toxicology in silico protocol
  27. Modeling the Quarter-Vehicle
  28. Berechnung und Weiterentwicklung des Sozialindex für Hamburger Schulen
  29. Deep decarbonization in Germany: A macro-analysis of economic and political challenges of the 'Energiewende' (energy transition)
  30. Dynamics of organic acid occurrence under flooding stress in the rhizosphere of three plant species from the water fluctuation zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir, P.R. China
  31. Provocative Alloys
  32. Capping risk adjustment?
  33. Situative bewegungssimulation des zweibeinigen, parallelkinematischen schreitroboters centaurob
  34. Intergroup conflict and third-party intervention
  35. Alltägliche Unterrichtsplanung und -analyse in konstruktivistischer Perspektive
  36. Die andere Hälfte der Globalisierung