Author Jathan Sadowski To Bring His ‘Ruthless’ Critique Of AI To New Zealand For A Speaking Tour In December

AUCKLAND, 7 November 2024 – An internationally renowned author and technology academic will bring a ‘ruthless’ critique of AI and its role in the modern world to New Zealand in December for a speaking tour that will visit three cities.

Jathan Sadowski is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and author of the book Too Smart, about the political economy of technology. He also hosts the long-running weekly technology podcast This Machine Kills.

Sadowski’s new book, The Mechanic and the Luddite: A Ruthless Criticism of Technology and Capitalism is due for international release in January 2025.

Jathan’s series of talks in three New Zealand cities - Wellington, Dunedin and Auckland - will take place in the first week of December. They will include a 35-minute keynote address, discussing “the pressing issues of AI and labour, higher-education, the rhetoric of adaptation, the politics of tech procurement, and the political economy of AI.”

The keynote will be followed by a panel discussion by local academics and commentators with knowledge and expertise on AI’s impact in New Zealand.

To register for these free events, visit: https://jathansadowskitour.lilregie.com/

“In 2021, science fiction writer Ted Chiang observed that most of our fears or anxieties about technology are best understood as fears or anxiety about how capitalism will use technology against us,” says Sadowski. “The sudden boom of interest in artificial intelligence—driven by torrents of cash and threats to transform society from top to bottom—has clarified this relationship between technology and capitalism even further,” he says.

“People are more aware than ever of the power dynamics that drive systems like AI. It is now common to see sceptical inquiry about how technologies are made, who decides their purpose, who uses them, and who are they used against?”

Sadowski says the impacts of AI are no longer merely abstract or distant concerns, with the ecological, economic, and human costs all increasingly material and immediate. His talk will outline three key concepts that are crucial for a political economic analysis—and a ruthless criticism—of AI and capitalism: 1) innovation realism, 2) cheap data, and 3) the perpetual value machine.

EVENT DATES AND LOCATIONS
WELLINGTON
WHEN: 2 December 2024, 5.00-7.00pm
WHERE: Hunter Lounge, Kelburn Campus Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington
PANELLISTS:
Dr Karaitiana Taiuru, Director, Taiuru & Associates Ltd
Anna Pendergrast, Co-lead, ANTISTATIC
(Final panellist TBC)
DUNEDIN
WHEN: 4 Dec 2024, 5:00pm–6:30pm
WHERE: University of Otago, Castle 2/ISB Link
PANELLISTS:
Assoc Prof Katharina Ruckstuhl, Otago Business School, Te Maea Network, University of Otago
Dr Brendon Woodford, School of Computing, University of Otago
Dr Olivier Jutel, Communication Studies, University of Otago
AUCKLAND
WHEN: 6 December 2024, 5:00pm–7:00pm NZDT (This event will also be livestreamed on Zoom.)
WHERE: John Lysaght Event Venue, GridAKL, 101 Pakenham St West, Wynyard Quarter, Auckland
PANELLISTS
Dr Sarah Hendrica Bickerton, Lecturer, Public Policy, School of Social Science, University of Auckland
Mandy Henk, Co-founder, Dark Times Academy
Dr Daniel Wilson, Lecturer, School of Computer Science, University of Auckland
This tour is presented by Tertiary Education Union (TEU) in partnership with:
Dark Times Academy
Pūtaiao ki te Pāpori Science in Society
The Media Studies programmes at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington
The Media, Film and Communication/Pāpāho, Whitiāhua, Pārokoroko
The Communications programme Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland
Counterfutures.

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