Meredith Broussard’s “Artificial Intelligence” Response
Meredith Broussard is a software developer and journalist, and also a professor at New York University. Her work frequently deals with artificial intelligence, which, as you might be able to tell from the title, is the subject of her book. In Artificial Intelligence, Broussard argues against technochauvinism, aka the belief that technology is the solution to every problem. Although she emphatically insists technology is not the solution to nearly as many problems as people think it is, in her book, she attempts to use AI to find solutions to huge issues like students failing standardized tests and the broken U.S. campaign finance system.
The goal of her book (at least, the first chapter of it) is to convince readers that although we have the technological tools to make technology the solution to many problems, we lack the design discipline to do so. Most consumer technology is full of messy, poorly-tested code, and in an age where many people believe computers are smarter than them, users believe problems are their fault instead of the computers or machines they’re using. Computers cannot solve the problems we think they can until programmers (or, more likely, the corporate bosses that force programmers to work insane hours on tight deadlines) take the time to thoroughly test and design the code they release.
I see this problem all the time, especially in some of the classes I’ve taken for the Digital Studies minor. I’ve investigated poorly-designed websites, apps, products, and done deep analyses on how some of the most important digital tools we use every day are designed to make users into internet addicts. I also see the myriad problems that arise due to social media, and not very many solutions to offset those problems. Sure, technology and social media have the power to bring people together, but far too often it’s used to divide and keep people apart. Based on the first chapter of Artificial Intelligence, I think Broussard would agree with that assessment.
From what I’ve learned in the DS minor so far, the goal is to give students skills to navigate a digital world they otherwise might have trouble finding their ways around. I’ve learned how to identify harmful trends on social media, how to design content so that it’s accessible by anyone, and how to be inclusive for any audiences I might be creating content for. Judging by the content in chapter one of Artificial Intelligence, those skills sound like they would be near the top of Broussard’s list of skills every technology user should have. Both her writing and the content of this minor clearly illustrate that technology and the internet are not guaranteed solutions for many of the problems they are marketed to solve, but they could be with a little more manpower put into the designing and programming process. While we may not be close to solving all our problems through technology, it seems like Broussard and the DS minor at least care about getting us to that point.
