What are the practical implications of an AI-enabled world? As we think about the possibilities for digital campuses, corporations, and communities in the future, it is important to keep in mind the limits of technology in solving social problems. Despite the optimistic promises of digital evangelists, it has become clear that most large-scale software systems exacerbate existing social inequality. As algorithms are increasingly used to make decisions on our behalf, it is important to ask: how can journalists hold algorithms (and their creators) accountable?

In this talk, author and professor Meredith Broussard looks at the inner workings and outer limits of technology, and explains why we should never assume that computers always get things right. Making a case against “technochauvinism”—the belief that technology is always the solution—Broussard looks at why self-driving cars don’t really work and why social problems persist in every digital Utopia. If we understand the limits of what we can do with technology, Broussard tells us, we can make better choices about what we should do with it to make the world better for everyone. 

Meredith Broussard is an associate professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University and the author of Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World.

Presented in collaboration with the Klein College of Media and Communication

Presented as part of Love Data Week. Visit our website for additional workshops and programs. 

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