Yousif Hassan presentation

"The Globalization of Artificial Intelligence: Imaginaries of Technoscientific Futures"

Abstract: Propelled by the globalization of technology diffusion and cross-national policies of technological innovation, imaginaries of artificial intelligence (AI) have transcended the geographies of the Global North and become increasingly entangled with narratives of prosperity, progress, and modernity in the Global South. For example, many actors in Africa are looking for AI to capture economic growth and development opportunities. On the other hand, researchers highlight the gap in regulatory frameworks that govern the development of AI and its impact on the dissemination of AI practices and policy globally and particularly in the Global South. The lack of perspectives from marginalized and underrepresented groups in the development of AI exacerbates concerns of raciality and inclusion in the scientific research, circulation, and adoption of AI.

Based on a multi-sited case study and qualitative interviews across multiple African countries and underpinned by theoretical perspectives from Science and Technology Studies, contemporary African studies on the relationship between race, coloniality, and technoscience, and the political economy of technoscience, this talk aims at answering the following question: how should AI governance issues be approached from a Global South perspective? In pursuing this question, the talk discusses how actors approach the understanding of AI in the Global South, to what sociotechnical imaginaries, assumptions about AI are articulated, and how conceptions of the future(s) are co-produced with science, technology, and innovation. By doing so, this talk seeks to highlight a different theorization of AI ethics from below that is based on lived experiences of those in the margins.

Bio: Yousif Hassan is a research fellow with the program on Science, Technology, and Society at the Harvard Kennedy School. His areas of interest are information studies, science and technology studies (STS), Black and African studies, critical innovation studies, critical algorithm studies, human-computer interaction, the political economy of technoscience, and intersectional and post-colonial STS. His research focuses on the social, economic, and political implications of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the digital platform economy examining the relationship between race, digital technology, and technoscientific capitalism.