AI & Culture
Carnegie Mellon University, School of Design, Prof. Molly Wright Steenson, Spring 2020
There’s so much talk about AI. It’s all over pop culture, whether in tv, film, books, sci-fi, music, games, and internet memes. Yet the term “artificial intelligence” has been in use since 1955 and “robot” since 1920. It begs the question: how do we use popular culture to bring AI and ideas about computers and intelligence to life?
In this class, we’ll survey the pop culture of AI and smartness, read texts and articles to help us theorize it, bring in a variety of experts and visitors to ground our knowledge, and generate our own creative responses. If we do it right, this class will be a fun but insightful exploration into AI and the built environment.
Let me say that it’s a strange thing to launch a brand new class, online-only on a campus where we would usually be sharing this experience together, as the coronavirus pandemic grows. We can make time to engage with the coronavirus in this class, as we wish (or use pop culture as an escape).
This Medium page will change! We will post more pop culture goodies for you here on the site.
Please check here and our announcements on Canvas.
Readings available as links below, or in Google Drive (CMU login required).
Schedule
3/18: Course introduction
Launching this class remotely, talking about (and looking for) our own examples of AI & clichés, breakout groups & sharing your own interests.
3/25: From Science Fiction to Untold AI
We almost can’t help but turn to science fiction when we think about AI and its representations. It also helps us to think about the stories and narratives of AI that we’re not telling. What does this tell us about gender? About other possibilities against the clichéd ones we see too often?
- Guest: We’ll frame this class with Chris Noessel as our guest. He is the co-author of Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction, Designing Agentive Technology: AI that Works for People, and is Sr. Design Lead for Watson Customer Experience at IBM.
- Read: Nathan Shedroff & Chris Noessel, Make It So, “Learning Lessons from Sci-FI” and “Brain Interfaces” [Drive]
- Look at: The Untold AI poster that Chris Noessel designed and the blog post he wrote about it
- Watch: the following 3-minute-or-so clips from movies & TV [Drive]. Please email Molly if you have problems accessing the clips.
- Alphaville (1965)
- Barbarella (1968)
- Doctor Strange (2016)
- Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)
- Firefly, “The Train Job” (2002)
- Iron Man (2008)
- Psycho-Pass (2012)
- Rick and Morty, “The Ricks Must Be Crazy” (2015)
Your mission, to post in Canvas: After watching the clips, choose one. Based on what you’ve read this week—and the expertise and interests you have in your own studies—assess whether this interface is a good model for AI in the real world. Why or why not? What might make it a better model?
4/1: Humans. Robots. Interactions.
Our ideas of robots are bound up with how we understand many things about humans, how we work, what we value, and how we care. We’re going to look at these ideas from a few angles in this session: through history, in a 1920 play and even in robots in the Medieval Robots, through contemporary human-robot interaction research at CMU, and with a critical angle.
Guests: We will be joined by Professor Henny Admoni of the Human and Robot Partners Lab (HARP) and Michal Luria, PhD student, Human Computer Interaction Institute.
Read:
- Watch (and brief article): Shaping the Future of Human-Robot Interaction at Davos (CMU): about Prof. Admoni’s work, presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos. This is ~1/2 hour.
- James Auger, “Living with robots: a speculative design approach,” Journal of Human-Robot Interaction, February 2014 [Google Drive & online on ResearchGate]
- Karel Čapek, Rossum’s Universal Robots (R.U.R.). Read the script of this 1920 play by Karel Čapek. This play is the origin of the word “robot” (“robota” in Czech), which referred to artificially-created humans.
- (Optional but quick) Masahiro Mori, “The Uncanny Valley.” We talked about the uncanny valley—the eerie feeling we get when robots are too human — this is the article from Energy in 1970 that coined that term. It’s a quick read. How does the uncanny valley help us to understand what makes us human?
4/8: To infinity and beyond!
Space, AI & science fiction have a close relationship—we use space imagery and metaphors in our imaginations of what AI and computation might do. That’s even the case for NASA scientists. In this class, we’re going to look at how NASA scientists use sci-fi in their own work, and look at how architects, artists, and space researchers created images of space settlement and exploration to galvanize public opinion and to get everyday people excited about science and engineering again.
Guest: Fred Scharmen, author of Space Settlements and associate professor of architecture at Morgan State University
Read:
- Fred Scharmen, Space Settlements, Introduction. [Drive, and consider buying this book when you can. It’s beautiful!]
- Janet Vertesi, ““All these worlds are yours except …’: Science fiction and folk fictions at NASA,” Engaging Science, Technology, and Society 5 (2019). Dr. Vertesi is assistant professor of sociology at Princeton who studies how NASA scientists do their work
4/15: Smart vs. Smart-A**: Smart and Not-So-Smart Cities
My friend Amnon Dekel told me in 2004, “There is a thin line between smart and smart-a**.” It’s truer than ever. We’ve been talking about cities as laboratories since 1913, and we’ve thought of cities as machines since the 19th century. But how are we really doing with our smart cities? We’ll take a look at critiques of Toronto’s Quayside neighborhood, which was intended to be a “smart city from the ground up” developed by Google Sidewalk Labs. Indeed: local residents have pushed back, causing a scaling down of Google’s plans. We’ll also talk about some architectural precedents in history, including the work of groups like Archigram and the British architect Cedric Price.
- Guest: M.R. Sauter, Assistant Professor Sociotechnical Cybersecurity Studies, University of Maryland
- Read:
- M.R. Sauter, “City Planning Heaven Sent,” eFlux
- ———,“Google’s Guinea-Pig City,” The Atlantic, February 13, 2018
- Ian Austen, “You Can’t Fight City Hall. But Maybe You Can Fight Google.” New York Times, March 10, 2020
4/22: [To be determined]
4/29: The AI & Culture Festival
This class will culminate in an AI & Culture festival: an online publication that we will post on Medium, and that will bring together different forms of cultural expression about AI and its implications and impact on the world. We will choose themes as a class that interest us, and work together to gather and curate a virtual festival of those themes. Of course, our festival will need a name and some branding—some of you will choose to make that your contribution.
What do I mean by cultural expression? Movies, stories, novels, articles, works of art, design projects, games, buildings, speculative architecture, fashion, exhibitions, projects, non-fiction articles, paintings, operas, plays… and more. You will be curators and maybe even creators. See below for more detail, and we will discuss in class.
Objectives
- Develop your critical acumen and your angles on issues related to AI, algorithms, and technology through the lens of pop culture and science fiction
- Familiarize yourself with recent publications on critical technology questions, and with films, games, fashion, plays, architecture, art, and more that deal with AI and related technologies in the past, present & future
- Analyze the effects of technology and pop culture in your weekly reflections and in Zoom discussions
- Situate the work in your own interests by bringing in outside material that relates to and expands upon the class topics
- Create and produce your own perspective on AI & society and the themes in class by contributing to the AI & Culture festival we’ll curate as a final event
Grading
Weekly responses & “signals” on Canvas: 50%. You’ll have a specific prompt to answer based on the readings, and then you’ll be asked to post a “signal.” A signal is something pop cultural, or a news item, research paper, internet meme, photograph, video, song, book or other content that represents a direction of change or emerging trend. Each signal should contain a pointer to the document (a URL link, or APA-style citation) and tell us why it’s significant. This is a way to tie the class discussion back to your own interests, whatever they might be. It’s an opportunity to be creative.
Creative project: AI & Culture festival: 40%. You will work in a team, or potentially on a solo project for our AI & Culture festival. If you are curating your content, you will do the following:
- Your team’s mission:
- Give your thematic section a good title
- Choose a variety of works that support the theme.
- Provide an introduction of ~200 words, written by your group, to introduce the theme
- Offer a ~50–75 word description of each work you include
- Use images and video where possible (and be sure to cite the images)
- Create a 5-minute premiere of your project for us that we will share on 4/29, our final evening of the class, on Zoom as a presentation with your group.
Individual reflection (Canvas) on your festival contribution: 10%. 500 words on what you’ve done and your experience in the class. DUE WEDNESDAY, 5/6 AT 5 PM (updated from earlier due date, see Canvas for details).
Attendance & participation
Please try to attend. If you cannot attend, please listen to the recording of the class, complete the readings and viewings as assigned, and write your responses each week. (Ordinarily, we follow a stricter attendance policy but that’s not feasible now.)
Please take care of yourself
This is the most important policy of the class. Please take care of yourself. Keep yourself healthy to the best extent you can. Follow the guidance you’ve been given about washing your hands and practice social distancing.
But also, use this class as an opportunity to get to know your classmates and have conversations you might not have otherwise had. Seek out connections with each other and with me, and catch up with each other in all the online modes you use.
This class is intended to be interesting and pleasurable, and not place big demands on your time. Remember that reading in college and graduate school is different than reading for pleasure: this is a good guide about how to do it.
Remember that we — your professors and your classmates alike — want you to succeed and thrive. Please take care of yourself. CMU is an intense place and can make emotions more vivid. Stress is real. Emotions are real. Depression is real, and we’re in strange times with the coronavirus. We all are.
Some things to remember:
- Getting enough sleep is important. It can be hard to come by when you’re under a lot of pressure, but it’s one of the best things that can help to protect you when you’re feeling like you’re under stress.
- Move your body and get exercise. Most places are allowing you to get out and take walks.
- Seek out healthy snacks & meals.
- Engage mindfulness practices like breathing and yoga. CMU offers a free Headspace account.
- Alcohol is a depressant and it’s easy to build up a tolerance to it. Take care around your use of it and other drugs.
- Make time to relax.
If you are struggling or feeling down, please know that you are not alone. All of us benefit from support during times of struggle. There are many helpful resources available on campus and asking for support sooner rather than later is often helpful. If you or anyone you know experiences any academic stress, difficult life events, or feelings like anxiety or depression, we strongly encourage you to seek support. Counseling and Psychological Services (CaPS) is here to help: call 412–268–2922 and visit their website at http://www.cmu.edu/counseling/. Consider reaching out to a friend, faculty or family member you trust to get connected to the support that can help. Again, you’re not alone, even if we can’t be in the same room together.
Academic integrity
The point of this class is to develop and situate your own ideas in a broader discourse — and in order to do that properly, you need to cite your work. No form of academic dishonesty will be tolerated. When you use words, images, videos, or even ideas and thoughts that are not yours and that you do not credit or properly cite, you are guilty of plagiarism. It is better to ask for more time on a deadline than to plagiarize. If you have any questions, ask. Do not cut and paste from other sources, even into your own notes, without keeping some system that tells you exactly where your work came from. Get in the habit now of taking good notes. If you quote the readings, put the quoted parts in double quotation marks and use APA style to cite. If you are caught plagiarizing, you will receive a zero on the assignment. But that does not rule out further ramifications depending on the infraction, in accordance with CMU’s academic integrity policies.
