Responsible AI Talk
Speaker
SETH LAZAR
Professor
School of Philosophy, Australian National University
Principal Investigator, Machine Intelligence and Normative Theory (MINT) Lab
When
-
Where
In Person and Virtual - ET
Description
Algorithmic intermediaries increasingly mediate and govern our social relations, across commerce, politics, and sociality more broadly. In doing so, they exercise a distinct kind of intermediary power: they exercise power over us; they shape power relations between us; and they shape the social structures that those social relations constitute. Sometimes, when new or intensified forms of power emerge, our task is simply to eliminate them—to re-establish our independence from domination. But algorithmic intermediaries can enable new kinds of human flourishing, and could support transformative change to ossified social structures that are otherwise resistant to progress. Our task, then, is to understand and diagnose algorithmic power, and determine whether and how it can be justified. This paper uses political philosophy to advance that project—and uses algorithmic intermediary power to advance political philosophy. It offers an empirically-grounded theory of algorithmic power, then sets out the conditions for its justification, paying particular attention to the conditions under which private algorithmic power either can, or must not, be tolerated. In Person and Zoom Participation. See announcement.