Anatomy of an AI System: The Amazon Echo As An Anatomical Map of Human Labor, Data and Planetary Resources
<p>At this moment in the 21st century, we see a new form of extractivism that is well underway: one that reaches into the furthest corners of the biosphere and the deepest layers of human cognitive and affective being. Many of the assumptions of human life made by machine learning systems are narrow, normative and laden with error. Nonetheless, they are inscribing and building those assumptions into a new world, and will increasingly play a role in how opportunities, wealth, and knowledge are distributed. We offer up this exploded view map and essay as one way to begin seeing across a wider range of system extraction. The true scale required to build artificial intelligence systems is too complex, too obscured by intellectual property law, and too mired in logistical complexity to fully grasp. Yet it begins with a simple voice command issued to a small cylinder in your living room: “Alexa, what time is it?”</p> <p>And so the cycle continues.</p>
Authors: Kate Crawford, Vladan Joler
Designer: Vladan Joler, Kate Crawford