The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book by Shannon Vallor: “For many, technology offers hope for the future—that promise of shared human flourishing and liberation that always seems to elude our species. Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies spark this hope in a particular way. They promise a future in which human limits and frailties are finally overcome—not by us, but by our machines.

Yet rather than open new futures, today’s powerful AI technologies reproduce the past. Forged from oceans of our data into immensely powerful but flawed mirrors, they reflect the same errors, biases, and failures of wisdom that we strive to escape. Our new digital mirrors point backward. They show only where the data say that we have already been, never where we might venture together for the first time.

To meet today’s grave challenges to our species and our planet, we will need something new from AI, and from ourselves.

Shannon Vallor makes a wide-ranging, prophetic, and philosophical case for what AI could be: a way to reclaim our human potential for moral and intellectual growth, rather than lose ourselves in mirrors of the past. Rejecting prophecies of doom, she encourages us to pursue technology that helps us recover our sense of the possible, and with it the confidence and courage to repair a broken world. Vallor calls us to rethink what AI is and can be, and what we want to be with it…(More)”.

The Crime Data Handbook

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book edited by Laura Huey and David Buil-Gil: “Crime research has grown substantially over the past decade, with a rise in evidence-informed approaches to criminal justice, statistics-driven decision-making and predictive analytics. The fuel that has driven this growth is data – and one of its most pressing challenges is the lack of research on the use and interpretation of data sources.

This accessible, engaging book closes that gap for researchers, practitioners and students. International researchers and crime analysts discuss the strengths, perils and opportunities of the data sources and tools now available and their best use in informing sound public policy and criminal justice practice…(More)”.

The Secret Life of Data

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book by Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert: “…explore the many unpredictable, and often surprising, ways in which data surveillance, AI, and the constant presence of algorithms impact our culture and society in the age of global networks. The authors build on this basic premise: no matter what form data takes, and what purpose we think it’s being used for, data will always have a secret life. How this data will be used, by other people in other times and places, has profound implications for every aspect of our lives—from our intimate relationships to our professional lives to our political systems.

With the secret uses of data in mind, Sinnreich and Gilbert interview dozens of experts to explore a broad range of scenarios and contexts—from the playful to the profound to the problematic. Unlike most books about data and society that focus on the short-term effects of our immense data usage, The Secret Life of Data focuses primarily on the long-term consequences of humanity’s recent rush toward digitizing, storing, and analyzing every piece of data about ourselves and the world we live in. The authors advocate for “slow fixes” regarding our relationship to data, such as creating new laws and regulations, ethics and aesthetics, and models of production for our datafied society.

Cutting through the hype and hopelessness that so often inform discussions of data and society, The Secret Life of Data clearly and straightforwardly demonstrates how readers can play an active part in shaping how digital technology influences their lives and the world at large…(More)”

Being Human in Digital Cities

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book by Myria Georgiou: “…sets out to investigate the new configuration of social order that is taking shape in today’s cities. Although routed through extractive datafication, compulsive connectivity, and regulatory AI technologies, this digital order nonetheless displaces technocentrism and instead promotes new visions of humanism, all in the name of freedom, diversity, and sustainability. But the digital order emerges in the midst of neoliberal instability and crises, resulting in a plurality of contrasting responses to securing digitally mediated human progress. While corporate, media, and state actors mobilize such positive sociotechnical imaginaries to promise digitally mediated human progress, urban citizens and social movements propose alternative pathways to autonomy and dignity through and sometimes against digital technologies.

Investigating the dynamic workings of technology and power from a transnational and comparative perspective, this book reveals the contradictory claims and struggles for the future of digital cities and their humanity. In doing so, it will enrich understandings of digital urbanism, critical data studies, and critical humanist studies.​..(More)”.

CDOs in the Public Sector

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book by Christian Schachtner: “This book explores the need for innovative approaches to administrative digitization, leveraging technologies such as AI, blockchain, and smart processes to meet citizens’ expectations, with a particular focus on the role of Chief Digital Officers (CDOs) in driving successful digital transformations within public institutions. 

Administrative digitization requires fresh inputs to match the leaps seen in the industry sector, utilizing technologies like AI-driven automation, blockchain transactions, and security tools. Smart process solutions are seen as transformative in upholding service standards aligned with citizens’ state expectations. Unlike commercial companies, collaboration offers those overseeing public sector digitization enhanced scaling opportunities by drawing from experiences in other regions and metropolises, directly applicable and reusable.

In the public realm, digital strategies mirror legal and social conditions, necessitating adjustments and adaptation options for Chief Digital Officers as they lead digital transformation. Methodological focal points in task structure redesign, process optimization, and motivating actors yield diverse action areas for the CDO’s new role in public institutions. This book explores the instruments, strategies, and attitudes necessary to successfully implement transformative initiatives in organizations, emphasizing proven concepts with practical applicability, enabling readers to derive their own interaction options as digital guidance leaders. The book is a concise introduction to the specific requirements for visionary designers driving dynamic changes in user-centric public services….(More)”.

Next Generation Evidence: Strategies for More Equitable Social Impact

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book edited by Kelly Fitzsimmons and Tamar Bauer: “Evidence is remarkably powerful; it helps us understand the needs of communities, make decisions in times of change and scarcity, and build and do more of what works. However, practitioners face a number of structural and practical hurdles to building and using evidence. Traditional evaluation and research methods are often not timely, affordable, meaningful, or inclusive for helping practitioners make decisions to increase their impact for people and communities. Too often and for too long, evaluation was a thing done to practitioners and the communities they serve, relegating them to a passive role when they should be regarded as leaders of this work. Worse, their data and evidence has been used against them in disempowering thumbs-up, thumbs-down circumstances, rather than for learning and improvement that leads to impact.

Next Generation Evidence features innovative thinking from leaders across policy, philanthropy, research, and practice. Together, these leaders lay out a vision for a stronger, more equitable data and evidence ecosystem that centers on the voices of people and communities most directly impacted by the problems we seek to solve. Throughout the book, case studies featuring practitioners at various stages in their evidence-building journey highlight concrete illustrations of how continuous evidence building can benefit organizations and outcomes for communities…(More)”.

Data-Driven Innovation in the Creative Industries

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Open Access Book edited by Melissa Terras, Vikki Jones, Nicola Osborne, and Chris Speed: “The creative industries – the place where art, business, and technology meet in economic activity – have been hugely affected by the relatively recent digitalisation (and often monetisation) of work, home, relationships, and leisure. Such trends were accelerated by the global COVID-19 pandemic. This edited collection examines how the creative industries can be supported to make best use of opportunities in digital technology and data-driven innovation.

Since digital markets and platforms are now essential for revenue generation and audience engagement, there is a vital need for improved data and digital skills in the creative and cultural sectors. Taking a necessarily global perspective, this book explores the challenges and opportunities of data-driven approaches to creativity in different contexts across the arts, cultural, and heritage sectors. Chapters reach beyond the platforms and approaches provided by the technology sector to delve into the collaborative work that supports innovation around the interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral issues that emerge where data infrastructures and approaches meet creativity.

A novel intervention that uniquely centres the role of data in the theory and practice of creative industries’ innovation, this book is valuable reading for those researching and studying the creative economy as well for those who drive investment for the creative industries in a digitalised society…(More)”.

Data Rules: Reinventing the Market Economy

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book by Cristina Alaimo and Jannis Kallinikos: “Digital data have become the critical frontier where emerging economic practices and organizational forms confront the traditional economic order and its institutions. In Data Rules, Cristina Alaimo and Jannis Kallinikos establish a social science framework for analyzing the unprecedented social and economic restructuring brought about by data. Working at the intersection of information systems and organizational studies, they draw extensively on intellectual currents in sociology, semiotics, cognitive science and technology, and social theory. Making the case for turning “data-making” into an area of inquiry of its own, the authors uncover how data are deeply implicated in rewiring the institutions of the market economy.

The authors associate digital data with the decentering of organizations. As they point out, centered systems make sense only when firms (and formal organizations more broadly) can keep the external world at arm’s length and maintain a relative operation independence from it. These patterns no longer hold. Data transform the production of goods and services to an endless series of exchanges and interactions that defeat the functional logics of markets and organizations. The diffusion of platforms and ecosystems is indicative of these broader transformations. Rather than viewing data as simply a force of surveillance and control, the authors place the transformative potential of data at the center of an emerging socioeconomic order that restructures society and its institutions…(More)”.

Human-Centered AI

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book edited by Catherine Régis, Jean-Louis Denis, Maria Luciana Axente, and Atsuo Kishimoto: “Artificial intelligence (AI) permeates our lives in a growing number of ways. Relying solely on traditional, technology-driven approaches won’t suffice to develop and deploy that technology in a way that truly enhances human experience. A new concept is desperately needed to reach that goal. That concept is Human-Centered AI (HCAI).

With 29 captivating chapters, this book delves deep into the realm of HCAI. In Section I, it demystifies HCAI, exploring cutting-edge trends and approaches in its study, including the moral landscape of Large Language Models. Section II looks at how HCAI is viewed in different institutions—like the justice system, health system, and higher education—and how it could affect them. It examines how crafting HCAI could lead to better work. Section III offers practical insights and successful strategies to transform HCAI from theory to reality, for example, studying how using regulatory sandboxes could ensure the development of age-appropriate AI for kids. Finally, decision-makers and practitioners provide invaluable perspectives throughout the book, showcasing the real-world significance of its articles beyond academia.

Authored by experts from a variety of backgrounds, sectors, disciplines, and countries, this engaging book offers a fascinating exploration of Human-Centered AI. Whether you’re new to the subject or not, a decision-maker, a practitioner or simply an AI user, this book will help you gain a better understanding of HCAI’s impact on our societies, and of why and how AI should really be developed and deployed in a human-centered future…(More)”.

Counting Feminicide: Data Feminism in Action

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book by Catherine D’Ignazio: “What isn’t counted doesn’t count. And mainstream institutions systematically fail to account for feminicide, the gender-related killing of women and girls, including cisgender and transgender women. Against this failure, Counting Feminicide brings to the fore the work of data activists across the Americas who are documenting such murders—and challenging the reigning logic of data science by centering care, memory, and justice in their work. Drawing on Data Against Feminicide, a large-scale collaborative research project, Catherine D’Ignazio describes the creative, intellectual, and emotional labor of feminicide data activists who are at the forefront of a data ethics that rigorously and consistently takes power and people into account.

Individuals, researchers, and journalists—these data activists scour news sources to assemble spreadsheets and databases of women killed by gender-related violence, then circulate those data in a variety of creative and political forms. Their work reveals the potential of restorative/transformative data science—the use of systematic information to, first, heal communities from the violence and trauma produced by structural inequality and, second, envision and work toward the world in which such violence has been eliminated. Specifically, D’Ignazio explores the possibilities and limitations of counting and quantification—reducing complex social phenomena to convenient, sortable, aggregable forms—when the goal is nothing short of the elimination of gender-related violence.

Counting Feminicide showcases the incredible power of data feminism in practice, in which each murdered woman or girl counts, and, in being counted, joins a collective demand for the restoration of rights and a transformation of the gendered order of the world…(More)”.