Media Whatever

Technology for good? AI, hubris and the environmental costs of big data - Media Whatever Podcast with Sebastián Lehuedé

In the final episode of this academic year, hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli talk to Sebastián Lehuedé about the environmental costs of AI. AI’s data centres generate carbon emissions and burn through rare minerals, but these hidden environmental costs are often ignored, offshored to remote locations. At the same time, hubristic claims that AI can solve environmental problems from Google and other big tech companies don’t quite measure up. Perhaps we need a more humble yet ambitious approach to AI, recognising its limitations and costs as well as its undoubted benefits.   Sebastián Lehuedé is a lecturer in Ethics, AI and Society at Kings College London. He examines AI from a social justice perspective and has published extensively on data colonialism, the ethics of data extraction and the relationship between AI, ‘technology for good’ and the environment. You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Link⁠ [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-bF3vYoGKwH81t1WUvehjSAoDnmBpBRY&feature=shared]

Being post-digital: Work and Identity Online - Media Whatever Podcast with Alessandro Gandini

In a wide-ranging discussion of digital culture and the future of work, your hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli talk with sociologist Alessandro Gandini about how digital media have transformed our experience of work and our sense of self, especially in the years since the Covid-19 pandemic. Whilst this has led to some nostalgia for pre-digital communities of place, for most of us platformisation has been a process of adaptation and intensification as we seek to negotiate ‘a self that works’ in the online world.   Alessandro Gandini is an Associate Professor in the Sociology of Culture and Communication at the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Milan. His research centres on digital labour, platformisation and digital culture. His books include Zeitgeist Nostalgia: on Populism, Work and the Good Life(2020) and The Reputation Economy: Understanding Knowledge Work in Digital Society (2016). You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Link⁠ [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-bF3vYoGKwH81t1WUvehjSAoDnmBpBRY&feature=shared]

Is it Real or is it Cake? Exploring the Weird World of Web Culture and AI Art - Media Whatever Podcast with Valentina Tanni

n this episode your hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli talk with curator and author Valentina Tanni about how artists and creative technologists are subverting the tech logic of digital media by creating weird memes, vapour trails and remixes of online culture. Valentina guides us through the backrooms and counter-cultures of web culture and AI art, suggesting that the online world might not be as rational or logical as we thought.   Valentina Tanni is an art historian, curator and academic, interested in the hidden corners of web cultures. She is the author of multiple books and articles exploring memes and AI art, including Exit Reality (Nero, 2024). You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Link [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-bF3vYoGKwH81t1WUvehjSAoDnmBpBRY&feature=shared]

Troubling AI - Probing the Algorithm - Media Whatever Podcast with Tommy Shaffer Shane

In this episode your hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli talk to AI policy expert Tommy Shaffer Shane about the descriptive affordances and architecture of AI – how does AI reinforce biases and norms, and how far do humans create or challenge those biases? And how does ‘Artificial Intelligence’ reproduce certain assumptions about the meaning and value of ‘intelligence’? Can the ‘object’ of AI become a ‘subject’, like the robots in the Terminator movies? And should we – really – be worried that AI is going to ‘go rogue’ and destroy the world?    Tommy is currently an AI Policy Advisor at the Centre for Long Term Resilience. Previously he has led an investigation of online disinformation for the UK government, and acted as an AI consultant with WHO, Stanford University, Unicef, the UN and Google. He is currently working part-time on a PhD at Kings College London on AI safety incidents. You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠⁠⁠Link [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-bF3vYoGKwH81t1WUvehjSAoDnmBpBRY&feature=shared]

Counterfeit Sneakers and Instagram Queens - Media Whatever Podcast with Adam Arvidsson

Our hosts Chris Bilton and Carolina Bandinelli are joined by Adam Arvidsson who talks to us about ‘industriousness’ in the new digital economy from ‘bullshit jobs’ to entrepreneurial content creators on TikTok and Instagram. Who belongs in this ‘neo-plebeian’ class of precarious, entrepreneurial creative workers? What drives them, where are they from and what will they do next?   Adam Arvidsson is Professor of Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes at the University of Napoli. Adam writes about digital media, brands, creative industries and new forms of digital economy. His books include Changemakers: The Industrious Future of the Digital Economy (2019) and The Ethical Economy (2013). You can watch our CMPS Seminar Series on our YouTube Channel - ⁠⁠Link [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-bF3vYoGKwH81t1WUvehjSAoDnmBpBRY&feature=shared]