In this thought-provoking DLD24 talk, Sarah Spiekermann (University of Vienna) questions the common narrative that AI will eventually surpass and replace humans.
Spiekermann – a prominent figure in the field of business informatics and digital ethics – argues that this is an oversimplified view that’s being propagated by influential figures in the tech industry and through social media.
“I think we have to be careful because the first powerful generation of AI – which is those AIs that feed us through social media, through LinkedIn, through Facebook, through TikTok, through Instagram, that’s taken up again by the media – has put us all to a certain extent in a matrix”, Spiekermann argues.
The potential of human intelligence is much greater than the IT industry portrays, she says, and encourages investment in a better understanding of human behavior and cognition.
Spiekermann also advocates for a more realistic approach to digitization. Companies need to account for the total cost of digitization, including all resources used and wasted, Spiekermann argues, and suggests the development of an ecological balance sheet for digitization.
At the beginning of her talk, Spiekermann shows a video clip from the upcoming documentary The End of Humanity, which she co-produced.
