Maitreya Shah disables harmful notions and aspires to a world in which AI systems honor the humanity and agency of disabled persons rather than using them as a shield.

Maitreya and Kimberly discuss digital tech done well; how society views disabled persons; engaging people with disabilities as leaders and developers; ableist narratives; why ‘fixing’ disabilities misses the mark; confusing accessibility with AI for Good; whitewashing bad behavior with assistive tech; the false dichotomy between access and privacy; disability as a diverse identity; the high stakes for AI reliability and trust; the deepening digital divide; the dearth of disability data and resources; entrenched societal biases; and asking rather than deciding for people with disabilities.

Maitreya Shah is a lawyer and researcher working at the intersection of tech policy and disability rights. Maitreya current serves as the Technology Policy Director at the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD).

Related Resources:

• To Regulate Artificial Intelligence Effectively We Need to Confront Ableism (Article)
• Maitreya Shah (Profile)

A transcript of this episode is here.

Courtney Radsch reports on the political and economic impact of synthetic media and the stultifying consequences of our increasingly low-quality, high-fat media diet.

Courtney and Kimberly discuss the range of journalistic endeavors; synthetic media’s entrée on the scene; disinformation vs. propaganda; competing with AI in the marketplace of ideas; content verification, labeling and trust; how synthetic media depends on and undermines journalism; information as a social, political and economic concern; embedded AI ideologies; equating regulation with censorship; information warfare; cognitive liberty in an age of corporate dominance; infrastructure and intent; the need for bright line protections, pluralism and independent oversight.

Dr. Courtney Radsch, PhD is the Director of the Center for Media and Digital Governance (formerly CJL) and a non-resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution. An award-winning journalist, scholar, diplomat, and human rights advocate, Courtney was recently named one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics.

Related Resources:

• Same Gatekeepers, New Tollbooths: Mapping the AI Content Licensing Market (CMDG Research Report)
• The Algorithm Loses Its Immunity (Article)
• The Pentagon Wants Its Panopticon (Article)
• The Battle for Cognitive Liberty in the Age of Corporate AI (Tech Policy Press)

A transcript of this episode is here.

Olga Goriunova rejects digital abstractions as mirror images of ourselves and reflects on why we concern ourselves with representations that aren’t concerned about us.

Olga and Kimberly discuss how cultural imagination is shaped by technology; digital subjects as unnatural constructs; the distance between individuals and their digital profiles; banal categorization and subjective truth; how statistics and ML changed the concept of the ideal; the limits of digital subjects; extreme individuation and aspiring to become our digital reflections; how current predictions create future realities; why the ideal digital subject isn’t concerned with you; and thinking critically about what we desire and why.

Olga Goriunova is a cultural theorist working at the intersection of technology, philosophy, and aesthetics. A Professor of Media Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London, Olga is the author of the critically acclaimed book Ideal Subjects: The Abstract People of AI.

Additional Resources:

• Aksioma: Institute for Contemporary Art Book Lecture
• Olga Goriunova Academic Profile

A transcript of this episode is here.