[Xmca-l] Re: The ethics of artificial intelligence, past present and future

Thu Dec 26 12:45:05 PST 2019

Thank you Henri and venerable others,

I hope your holiday break is restful and refreshing.

And to Richard and Sébastien, thank you for listing references. That's marvelous.

I will also be happy to learn about the conference and links resulting forthwith!

Sébastien, I would be curious if there were a discussion at your conference about how the word "languaging" came to be and that it might be documented in some fashion. It might be a good intro for others learning about the research for the first time.

If it was first used in the 80s and ever since, I regret that your post is the first time I've heard it. I can't believe I wouldn't have heard of it, unless this is something new arising? But perhaps I was just not looking in the right places or I'm forgetting having seen it and am reading it in a new context of the list.

Regardless, it's a wonderful development, because this research seems to flow (historically) from developments concerning embodied thinking and other revelations in cognition, such as CHAT and distributed cognition.

Although, my initial post concerns ethics of AI, it's remarkable that  the thread has turned to languaging, which is embodied, something that AI is not.

There will be more discussion about technology ethics and social harms that arise from neglect of very large companies such as Facebook, Google, and the like. Here is one such reporting from the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/dec/26/too-big-to-fail-techs-decade-of-scale-and-impunity

I hope we can continue to discuss AI and ethics. I'm interested in what people have to contribute on that account. There is an inclination to say that technology is inevitable and that we can't uninvent AI (something I am not proposing). But now that AI is here, how do we prevent being inured to a lack of ethics in research and in application of AI?

Kind regards,

A n n a l i s a

________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of HENRY SHONERD <hshonerd@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 25, 2019 3:35 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: The ethics of artificial intelligence, past present and future

Happy holidays to all,
I’ve been following this thread with great interest. Thanks to Analisa in kicking it off, after a long hiatus on the chat. An additional take on “languaging” is modality, including manual signing. This profiles how language is embodied and points to its gestural roots in its evolution.
Henry

> On Dec 25, 2019, at 3:21 PM, Sébastien Lerique <sebastien.lerique@normalesup.org> wrote:
>
> Delighted to read the great reactions!
>
> I'm not yet familiar enough with what I imagine are a variety of uses of the term languaging (one of the reasons for which I wanted to organise this workshop), but my basic understanding, which seems to follow what Richard cited, is that it is a construal of language as mainly an activity (versus an abstract structure or system), that cannot be isolated from the concrete contexts in which it develops.
>
> Another relevant reference is Di Paolo, Cuffari and De Jaegher (2018), "Linguistic Bodies" (or the shorter/introductory version: Cuffari, Di Paolo, & Jaegher, 2015, "From Participatory Sense-Making to Language: There and Back Again."), who flesh out a proposal for a theory of languaging grounded in the enactive approach to cognition.
>
>> I would certainly be interested in receiving copies of the papers presented, if not a list of titles so I might find them.
>
> If all goes well I'll be recording all the talks too, and will send the link on this list once it's all up.
>
>> BTW, I have no issue with your announcement post on this thread.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Best,
> Sébastien
>
> PS: I had first written on this list in August 2018 to gather thoughts about Dynamicland, and was rather overwhelmed by the answers. Email bankruptcy got the better part of my energy to answer however, so I would like to apologise here for not having followed up at the time.
>
> Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu> writes:
>
>> When I searched "languaging" I found this:
>>
>> "A term coined by Swain (1985) relating to the cognitive process of negotiating and producing meaningful, comprehensible
>> output as part of language learning."
>>
>> Oddly, I've never heard this word before, I've heard "speaking" though. I would like to know what the nuanced difference of
>> this word-use is from "speaking."
>>
>> Or is it the act of translating from one language to another, as in the bridging one does as one becomes fluent in another
>> language. Is that it?
>>
>> Or is it what one does when one is writing a poem and trying to make a rhyme or have a phrase fit in the meter of the line?
>>
>> Are we languaging now?
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> Annalisa
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of Richard Beach
>> <rbeach@umn.edu>
>> Sent: Tuesday, December 24, 2019 12:56 PM
>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: The ethics of artificial intelligence, past present and future
>>
>> Annalisa asked, “What does ‘languaging’ mean?”
>>
>> For more on “languaging” theory, a primary resource is Per Linnell’s 2009 book, Rethinking Language, Mind, and World
>> Dialogically: Interactional and Contextual Theories of Human Sense-making. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
>>
>> For research on application of languaging theory to teaching literacy see Beach & Bloome (Eds.) (2019). Languaging Relations
>> for Transforming the Literacy and Language Arts Classrooms (Routledge) and the resource website for Beach & Beauchemin
>> (2019). Teaching Language as Action in the ELA Classroom (Routledge).
>>
>> Richard Beach, Professor Emeritus of English Education, University of Minnesota
>> rbeach@umn.edu
>> Websites: Digital writing, Media literacy, Teaching literature, Identity-focused ELA Teaching, Common Core State Standards,
>> Apps for literacy learning, Teaching about climate change, Teaching language as action
>>
>> On Dec 24, 2019, at 12:47 PM, Annalisa Aguilar  <annalisa@unm.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Sébastien,
>>
>> This sounds like a marvelous conference. I wish I could attend.
>>
>> What does "languaging" mean?
>>
>> I would certainly be interested in receiving copies of the  papers presented, if not a list of titles so I might find them.
>>
>> BTW, I have no issue with your announcement post on this  thread.
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> Annalisa
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu  <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of Sébastien  Lerique
>> <sebastien.lerique@normalesup.org>
>> Sent: Monday, December 23, 2019 1:05 PM
>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: The ethics of artificial intelligence,  past present and future
>>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> I'm jumping on the occasion created by Annalisa's email to
>> announce a workshop I am organising which might interest some  in
>> this community: it is the "Embodied interactions, Languaging  and
>> the Dynamic Medium Workshop" (ELDM2020), an event gathering
>> interests and works in embodiment, languaging, diversity  computing
>> and humane technologies, on **18th February in Lyon,  France**. As
>> is confirmed in the messages here, recent developments in these
>> communities are ripe for focused conversations, and this  workshop
>> will be a coming-together for cross-pollination and  explorations
>> of possible common futures.
>>
>> Invited speakers:
>> - Elena Clare Cuffari (Worcester State University)
>> - Mark Dingemanse (Radboud University)
>> - Omar Rizwan (Dynamicland.org)
>> - Jelle van Dijk (University of Twente)
>>
>> There is an open call for proposals until 6th January 2020, and
>> registration opens on 1st January. All the details are  available
>> on the main website: https://wehlutyk.gitlab.io/eldm2020/ . I  will
>> be delighted to answer any questions that might arise!
>>
>> Best wishes,
>> Sébastien Lerique
>>
>> PS: My sincere apologies for somewhat hijacking the thread with
>> this announcement. I have in fact already sent this message  three
>> times to the list, and they seem to be spam-filtered as the
>> announcements neven went through.
>>
>> Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu> writes:
>>
>> > Hello fellow and distant XMCArs,
>> >
>> > So today I saw this in the Intercept and thought I would  > share
>> > for your awareness, because of the recent developments that
>> > likely impact you, namely:
>> >
>> > * the neoliberalization of higher academic learning
>> > * the compromise of privacy and civil life in the US and  > other
>> > countries
>> > * the (apparently) hidden agenda of technology as it  > hard-wires
>> > biases and control over women, minorities, and other
>> >  vulnerable people to reproduce past prejudices and power
>> >  structures.
>> >
>> > In my thesis I discuss historical mental models of mind and  > how
>> > they inform technology design. During reading for my thesis I
>> > had always been bothered about the story of the AI Winter.
>> >
>> > Marvin Minsky, an "august" researcher from MIT labs of that
>> > period, had discredited Frank Rosenblatt's work on  > Perceptrons
>> > (which was reborn in the neural networks of the 1980's to  > early
>> > naughts). That act basically neutralized funding of  > legitimate
>> > research in AI and, through vicious academic politics,  > stymied
>> > anyone doing research even smelling like Perceptrons. Frank
>> > Rosenblatt died in 1971, likely feeling disgraced and ruined,
>> > never knowing the outcome of his lifework. It is a nightmare  > no
>> > academic would ever want.
>> >
>> > Thanks to Herbert Dreyfus, we know this story which is  > discussed
>> > in What Computers Still Can't Do
>> > https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/what-computers-still-cant-do
>> >
>> > Well, it ends up that Minksy has been allegedly tied up with
>> > Jeffery Epstein and his exploitation of young women.
>> >
>> > This has been recently reported in an article by Rodrigo
>> > Ochigame of Brazil, who was a student of Joichi Ito, who ran  > the
>> > MIT
>> > Media Lab. We know that Ito's projects were funded by none  > other
>> > than Epstein, and this reveal forced Ito's resignation. Read
>> > about it here:
>> > https://theintercept.com/2019/12/20/mit-ethical-ai-artificial-intelligence/
>> >
>> > I have not completed reading the article, because I had to  > stop
>> > just to pass this on to the list, to share.
>> >
>> > One might say that computer technology is by its very nature
>> > going to reproduce power structures, but I would rather say  > that
>> > our mental models are not serving us to create those  > technology
>> > tools that we require to create an equitable society. How  > else
>> > can we free the tools from the power structures, if the only
>> > people who use them are those who perpetuate privilege and
>> > cheat, for example by thwarting academic freedom in its  > process?
>> > How can we develop equality in society if the tools we
>> > create come from inequitable motivations and interactions? Is  > it
>> > even possible?
>> >
>> > As I see it, the ethics at MIT Labs reveals concretely how  > the
>> > Cartesian model of mind, basically normalizes the mind of the
>> > privileged, and why only a holistic mental model provides
>> > safeguards against these biases that lead to these
>> > abuses. Models
>> > such as distributed cognition, CHAT, and similar constructs,
>> > intertwine the threads of thought to the body, to culture,
>> > history,
>> > tool-use, language, and society, because these models
>> > encapsulate how environment develops mind, which in turn
>> > develops
>> > environment and so on. Mind is not separate, in a certain  > sense,
>> > mind IS material and not disembodied. It is when mind is
>> > portrayed otherwise that the means of legitimizing abuse is
>> > given its nutrition to germinate without check.
>> >
>> > I feel an odd confirmation, as much as I am horrified to  > learn
>> > this new alleged connection of Minsky to Epstein, how the  > ways
>> > in
>> > which as a society we fool ourselves with these  > hyper-rational
>> > models which only reproduce abusive power structures.
>> >
>> > That is how it is done.
>> >
>> > It might also be a reminder to anyone who has been unethical  > how
>> > history has a way of revealing past deeds. Justice does
>> > come, albeit slowly.
>> >
>> > Kind regards as we near the end of 2019,
>> >
>> > Annalisa
>

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