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SUMMARY:No such thing as society? Learning from AI in the street.  - Profe
 ssor Noortje Marres\, Professor in Science\, Technology and Society in the
  Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies\, University of Warwick 
DTSTART:20250311T123000Z
DTEND:20250311T140000Z
UID:TALK227233@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:127819
DESCRIPTION:The street provides ample opportunity for the social study of 
 Artificial Intelligence (AI). Here we can observe different modes of exist
 ence of AI  - in the form of apps\, automated vehicles and smart infrastru
 cture - in situ and we can examine how these manifest\, intersect\, and tr
 ansform collective life in a type of multifarious environment that is char
 acteristic of contemporary society: the street is part public/part private
  space\, both communal place and utility infrastructure. \n\nHowever\, in 
 attempting to facilitate situated encounters between everyday publics and 
 AI in this setting\, the AI in the street project found that AI is defined
  more by its absence than by presence in the street. Along commuter roads\
 , at difficult crossings\, and in the urban thoroughfares where we conduct
 ed our participatory research\, the project found that AI mostly operates 
 outside the zones of human-non-human interaction that define social life i
 n these settings. In the street AI manifests indirectly\, through proxies 
 (smart traffic lights\, sensors in lampposts\, digital billboards)\, and t
 he technicities that enable its functioning remain mostly inaccessible to 
 the senses. In other words\, AI - unlike other digital technologies such a
 s platforms -lacks a social interface in the street. \n\nIn this presentat
 ion\, Prof Marres will reflect on these findings\, and propose that some o
 f the most significant impacts of AI on the world derive from the ways in 
 which the digital economy's attempted approximation between technicity and
  sociality is becoming undone in an age defined by investment in AI. 
LOCATION:Sociology Department Seminar Room\, Free School Lane
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