[Themaintainers] Maintenance & Philosophy Talk: "Repairing AI" - Taylor Stone (Thurs Oct 13, 1800 UTC+1)

[mark young]

*Dear all,Hope this email finds everyone well. We’d like to announce the
next session of the Maintenance and Philosophy of Technology group on
Thursday 13th September (1800-1915 UTC+1). In this session, we're excited
to welcome Taylor Stone (U Bonn) who’ll be presenting joint work with Aimee
van Wynsberghe (U Bonn) that explores the notion of repair in relation to
the infrastructure of artificial intelligence. If you’d like to receive the
zoom link for the talk please email me at mark at markthomasyoung.net
<mark at markthomasyoung.net>. The schedule for the remainder of the year
follows below,*

Mark

*Repairing AI*

Taylor Stone & Aimee van Wynsberghe (Bonn Sustainable AI Lab, University of
Bonn)

Thursday 13th September (1800-1915 UTC+1)

*Abstract:* This paper is a call to think about artificial intelligence
(AI) as broken and in need of repair. Not literally broken in the sense of
no longer being usable or functioning; quite to the contrary, we are seeing
a rapid increase in innovative applications. Rather, we will argue that
when AI is positioned as a growing component of digital infrastructures
there are aspects that urgently require fixing. For this, we build on the
recent distinction made by van Wynsberghe (2021) between *AI for
sustainability* and the *sustainability of AI*. The former utilizes or
develops AI in the service of sustainable goals; the latter concerns the
sustainability of AI systems themselves. This distinction will be expanded
to analyse and contrast *Sustainable AI as acts of repair* and *Repairing
AI*. The former concerns the practical use of AI for the monitoring,
upkeep, and adaptation of critical systems, whereas the latter requires
conceptualising AI as an increasingly critical infrastructure itself that
needs to be sustainably designed, maintained, and decommissioned. Through
this lens, AI can be considered ‘broken’ in the sense of being a cause of
the environmental problems which it is attempting to mitigate. To exemplify
this tension, we return throughout to the case study of utilizing AI for
ecological restoration efforts, showing that a reflexive approach is
required to fully realize Sustainable AI. This will build on recent
scholarship that understands repair as having both a material and social
dimension, with the potential to either reinforce the status quo or become
a means of transforming AI in more sustainable and socially just
directions. Taken together, this paper outlines a research agenda that
takes AI ethics out of the cloud and into the world of material things – as
a tool to repair our material world, and likewise as a material
infrastructure itself requiring repair.

(In order to avoid confusion regarding the timing of the talks - the
following clarifies when the talks begin in different locations)
Amsterdam 7:00pm
London 6:00pm
Toronto (New York) 1:00pm
San Francisco 10:00am

*Maintenance & Philosophy of Technology SIG - Remaining Schedule for 2022:*

November 10th 2022     (18-1915 UTC+1)
Sanna Lehtinen (Aalto Univ.) “Aesthetic Values in the Maintenance of Urban
Technologies”

December 8th 2022        (18-1915 UTC+1)
Simon Penny (UCI) "Making Maintenance Possible Again: Finding Ethical and
Sustainable Paths Through Consumerism, Disposability and Inbuilt
Obsolescence”
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