This section of Imminent Readings delves into the impact of artificial intelligence on human societies and cultures.
Updated weekly (last update 25/03/25)
Are We Accidentally Building A Planetary Brain? The article explores how humanity is unintentionally creating a “planetary brain” through technological and social progress, referencing ideas from figures like Teilhard de Chardin and Vernadsky. It examines the potential of AI in this global evolution, raising concerns about autonomy, governance, and human survival amid climate change. The piece also warns against overly ambitious technological interventions, like climate manipulation, urging caution in blending technology with the natural world. Read the full article on Noema Magazine
15 Times to Use AI, and 5 Not to AI can be a powerful ally in numerous scenarios, particularly those requiring massive idea generation, summarizing extensive information, or translating different frames. It shines in areas where human oversight ensures quality, like editing or expertise-driven assessments. However, AI isn’t infallible; its plausible errors can mislead, especially when high accuracy is crucial. While it’s ideal for repetitive, detail-oriented tasks, learning new ideas or engaging in high-stakes decisions still demands human involvement. Discover when to leverage AI for optimal results and when to tread carefully. Read the full article on One Useful Thing
How Culture Shapes What People Want from AI When a team of Stanford researchers applied cultural psychology theory to study what people want from AI, they found clear associations between the cultural models of agency that are common in cultural contexts and the type of AI that is considered ideal. This paper investigates how the cultural framework changes the perception of people about AI. Read the full paper on HAI Stanford
Artists’ AI dilemma: can artificial intelligence make intelligent art? This article delves into the transformation of art by artificial intelligence, starting with the ‘Idioms’ exhibition by French artist Pierre Huyghese. It explores the evolving roles of the artist (increasingly peripheral), the visitor, and the work itself, which is no longer a final product but a dynamic process of progress. Read the full article on The Guardian
Digital Divinity: Ancient Traditions Meet Modern Technology A Rest of World report explores how technology is reshaping religious practices worldwide, from 3D-printed Hindu temples to TikTok-dancing priests. The stories highlight the tension between tradition and modernity, showing how faith adapts as technology influences worship, community, and spiritual expression. Explore the full project on Rest of World
Innovating with generative AI to better understand community needs Sivar+, an invaluable tool for seamlessly accessing information shared by communities, is the new genAI model made by UNHCR in El Salvador. In fact, the organization made 122focus groups discussions with displaced communities in the country and obtained thousands of unstructured information. With the transcription of these discussions they’re able to train a new precise chatbot, which is able to give accurate responses about this territory need based on the answers of the communities. Read the full article on Medium
Women to surpass men in gen AI use by 2025, research predicts Deloitte forecasts women will soon outpace men in generative AI adoption, fueled by a remarkable surge in usage. Yet trust issues, from data security fears to biases in male-dominated AI fields, remain hurdles. While women excel in AI-driven tasks, their reluctance to upgrade devices for AI features poses a challenge for tech firms—especially given their influence over 85% of consumer spending. Read the full article on ZDNet
Platform Power in AI Examining the growing power of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google in AI through their cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), our open-access article of the week highlights how these companies shape the AI landscape, complicating regulation and creating dependencies for developers. Read the full article on Internet Policy Review
My trip to the frontier of AI education Imagine a classroom where AI empowers teachers and enhances student learning. During a visit to Newark, Bill Gates saw firsthand how AI, like Khanmigo, is revolutionizing education—helping teachers create personalized lesson plans and offering students tailored tutoring. While the technology is still evolving, its potential to transform education is undeniable. Curious about how AI could reshape the classroom? This article explores the exciting future of learning and why AI might just be the key to unlocking it. Read the full article on Gates Notes
AI mediation tool may help reduce culture war rifts, say researchers Google DeepMind and Oxford’s “Habermas Machine” uses AI to mediate cultural divisions, increasing group consensus more effectively than human mediators. Despite its potential, critics warn it may overlook smaller minority voices, raising questions about empathy and AI’s role in conflict resolution. Read the full article on The Guardian
Getting Real About AI Rejecting both AI optimism and doomsaying, this essay advocates for an “AI realism” that recognizes AI’s liberatory potential while being critical of its capitalist exploitation and environmental toll. Read the full Essay by Holly Lewis
Beyond Regulation: Building AI in the Image of the Human In “Beyond Regulation,” Professor Edward Harcourt delves into the ethical implications of AI, arguing that it reshapes human values and preferences in profound ways. He critiques the commercial focus of AI development and advocates for a proactive, human-centered ethical framework. Harcourt emphasizes the importance of understanding AI’s potential to transform societal norms, encouraging a thoughtful approach to its integration. Read the full article Institute For Ethics in AI
The myth of technological inevitability Is technology’s march unstoppable? Could it be true that if you choose to sit out the technological transformation, someone else will take your place? Dave Karpf embarked on a journey to unravel the myth of technological inevitability, igniting a heated debate on human cloning. Read the full article The Future, Now and Then
The United Nations Wants To Treat AI With The Same Urgency as Climate Change A new UN report urges global cooperation on AI governance, proposing an oversight body to address risks and empower poorer nations. It highlights growing concerns over AI’s rapid development and the need for unified action amid US-China tensions. Read the full article on Wired
One in five GPs use AI such as ChatGPT for daily tasks, survey finds A fifth of general practitioners in the UK embrace the power of AI in their daily tasks, like crafting letters or formulating diagnosis. Despite the survey revealing a significant number of doctors, important questions are being raised about patient privacy and the accuracy of ChatGPT’s responses. Read the full article on The Guardian
Rethinking Society’s Response to AI-Generated Explicit Content The rapid development of AI is bringing out several side effects, especially concerning the explicit images generated by AI and deep fakes. These phenomena, in addition to generating the usual uproar, pose important questions about the answers that society has to issues such as consent, context, legal consequences and the sense of shame. How can this cultural shift happen and what role does the tech industry play in it? Read the full article on The Sunday Guardian
The AI We Could Have Had Today’s technology is the product of decades of conflict between opposing factions: those who saw machines as humanity’s slave and those who viewed them as artisans. The types of interactivity and intelligence we see in our everyday devices are not the only ones out there. Are there alternatives to the dominant ideology promoted by Silicon Valley? In this article, sociologist Evgeny Morozov delves into the brief yet significant cybernetic revolution led by the Environmental Ecology Lab group. From the reflections of its founding fathers, Johnson and Brodey, we arrive at a broader understanding of the technology we could have had. Read the full article on Financial Times
iPad Kids Speak Up This article delves into the connection between Gen Alpha and technology. Despite the widespread belief among older generations that children and young people who have grown up since 2011 are lobotomized by excessive technology use, the outcome of such an extensive relationship with their iPads is not necessarily catastrophic. Read the full article on Vox
The Paradox of Open AI “Open” AI is more often a marketing tool than a genuine commitment to transparency and accessibility. This paper highlights how Big Tech uses the rhetoric of openness to maintain dominance, suggesting that even “open” AI often benefits these companies more than the public. Read the full paper by David Gray Widder, Sarah West, Meredith Whittaker
The Other Big Problem With AI Search: What if plagiarism is the whole product? Perplexity is a startup that presents itself as an excellent alternative to Google, answering users’ questions in a simple and narrative way, citing sources and simplifying web browsing. However, recent cases of plagiarism are posing an important question: how do you protect the work of humans from the massive aggregation of data used to train artificial intelligence? Read the full article on Intelligencer
Could AI help cure the ‘downward spiral’ of human loneliness? Starting from the Hollywood example of Her, where the protagonist falls in love with the voice of an artificial intelligence, this article examines the positive (and negative) effects of forming relationships with chatbots. As more and more people suffer from chronic loneliness, ChatGPT4 is investing in models increasingly capable of reading and responding to human emotions. Read the full article on The Guardian
AI is already an environmental problem The race to generative artificial intelligence started in 2022 with the launch of ChatGPT and since then the water and energy and consumption, as well as their carbon emissions, skyrocketed. Many of the biggest companies want to reach neutrality before 2030, but it’s very unlikely. Read the full article on El Pais English
The Danger Of Superhuman AI Is Not What You Think Modern generative AI is often described as “superhuman,” a term that misleadingly suggests AI possesses human-like consciousness and emotions. This rhetoric reduces human intelligence to mere computational efficiency, overshadowing our rich emotional and conscious experiences. The author argues that this ideology risks devaluing human uniqueness and emphasizes the need to resist such reductionist views. Historical resistance to industrial reductionism underscores the importance of preserving human dignity and autonomy. Read the full article on Noēma Magazine
Elon Musk’s Starlink has connected an isolated tribe to the outside world — and divided it from within. A report on the impact of the internet connection provided to the isolated Marubo tribe through Musk’s Starlink. It covers how it all started, what effects it is having on the community, and future perspectives on connectivity and indigenous communities in the Amazon Rainforest. Read the full article on the The New York Times
Today’s colonial data grab is deepening global inequalities Drawing a parallel between Big Tech’s extraction of data and the colonial extraction of natural resources, our essay of the week explores the rise of “data colonialism” and how to fight back. Read the full essay by Nick Couldry, Ulises A. Mejias
Colombia’s Wayúu people live on land rich in resources. So why are their children dying of hunger? This report is about the living situation of Indigenous communities in Colombia. Due to a lack of water and malnutrition, these communities experience many deaths in their families. However, the problem isn’t insufficient resources – it’s corruption in the organizations who should be helping them. Read the full article on The Guardian
The man who turned his dead father into a chatbot A highly lucrative new frontier is emerging for AI: the creation of avatars or chatbots of our loved ones, which remain with us even after their death. This is the case with James Vlahos’s father and the South Korean company DeepBrain AI. What will the consequences be for how we as humans experience grief? Read the full article on the BBC
Black Box: a new podcast series about AI and us A podcast series that connects stories from everyday life through one common denominator: the use of artificial intelligence. Listen to Black Box on the The Guardian
Non-White American Parents Are Embracing AI Faster Than White Ones AI is disrupting the digital-divide narrative, mostly when it comes to personal use. While 72% of white parents are using AI, 80% of Black and 84% of Hispanic parents say they use it. AI is changing the life of Black parents: a specific case shows how it can help with attention-deficit diagnosis and school-related issues. The key lies in the fact that AI is accessible for free through smartphones, which lower-income families use more than laptops. There is also a crucial cultural factor: white families are more bothered by their children using technology than Hispanic and Black families, who need to find a way to build a better life for their children when it comes to tutoring at school. Read the full article on The Economist
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff calls artificial intelligence a ‘new human right’ in 2019 Five years ago, Marc Benioff stated that AI was going to be a ‘new human right’ that everyone should have access to. Nowadays, his claim is starting to make more sense. Read the full article on Business Insider
In the age of misinformation, who holds the power to categorize the ‘truth’? In this article author Mohamed Suliman focuses on one of the problems that characterize modern society: disinformation. Read the full article on Global Voices
Teaching with AI In an attempt to educate teachers about the existence of AI tools that students might use, OpenAI has prepared a guide for educators to help them use ChatGPT with their students. Read the guide on OpenAI
How to regulate AI AI offers opportunities but also potential dangers. In this podcast episode, sociologist Alondra Nelson focuses on the Biden administration’s efforts to draft regulations for AI and its applications. Listen to the Foreign Policy podcast here
A number system invented by Inuit schoolchildren will make its Silicon Valley debut Mathematics is often defined as the “universal language.” These schoolchildren have brought to life a new dialect. Read the full article on Scientific American