Publish at March 21 2023 Updated March 23 2023
Artificial intelligence (AI) is investing our daily lives in the health and education sectors among others. By A.I., we mean any machine that reproduces human behaviors such as reasoning, planning and creativity according to the European Parliament.
This entity is essentially made of databases, algorithms, which at first glance is strictly rational since intelligent machines are based on rules of exact sciences in order to make a decision. But if the ideology is understood as a system of ideas, of opinions, shaping the behavior of an individual or a group in relation to the objectives of social development, the A.I. being included in this process cannot be deprived of a vision of the world. The latter can be apprehended here instead of ideology. So, to what extent is it possible to affirm that AI is the bearer of an ideology? This is the crux of this article.
If we start from the principle that any creation, be it artistic or any other, is imbued with the identity of its creator, this could also be the case of AI.Indeed, contrary to the idea of neutrality that one would be tempted to assign to technology in general, and to A.I. in particular, we note that the latter is "eminently political and social" according to Julie Marques.
The starting point of social disparities in the development of A.I. starts mainly from the under-representation of women amounting to 29% in the field of data and A.I. This reality makes this field a strongly male sector. This means that most of the algorithms produced by men carry gender bias. As an example, we can observe that most facial recognition software developed by men, are more efficient at distinguishing between men's faces than between women's. One realizes that these algorithms are the expression of a male worldview, due to the failure to identify women.
Besides this reality, let us notice that A.I. also contributes to the accentuation of racial inequalities. This can be seen through the COMPAS which is a system of defining prison sentences used in the United States, which had been labeled as racist. This is seen through the allocation of heavy prison sentences to racialized people and lesser sentences to non-racialized people. The idea is that racialized people are more likely to reoffend than the opposite group. As can be seen, the algorithms contain both gender and racial biases. These realities are a reflection of the space from which the algorithm is designed, or rather, a reflection of the worldview of the developer. In this perspective, A.I. tends to discredit a category of people and succeeds in feeding the power relations that are only a replica of reality. The lack of neutrality of AI through the reproduction of reality through biased algorithms seems to be not the only level of ideological analysis of AI. One also sees the quest for a mechanical world.
A.I. seems to be proving itself; from the promise of economic growth to the improved care of health, this entity is becoming more and more essential to everyday life. If it is designed at the base to facilitate the life of the Human, the machines endowed with a human intelligence tend to invade our lives in such a way that we can no longer do without them. This is what makes Jean-Claude Ravet say that we are facing the growing influence of the technicist ideology. It wants to enslave man and establishes a world in the grip of machines.
Concretely, this would mean that, more and more, men in the accomplishment of certain daily tasks can no longer override the help of machines. This situation leads to the disappearance of certain bodies of jobs and the replacement of humans by intelligent machines. This is the case, for example, in some supermarkets where cashiers are gradually being replaced by "self-service" recording machines; which count purchases under the watchful eye of a single employee.
The ideological side of the intelligent machine goes beyond the substitution of man by machines. It is equally necessary to mention its share of responsibility for changing man's relationship to the world. Indeed, A.I. imposes a new logic, a certain rhythm and dynamism on man in such a way that "everything that technology makes possible tends to turn into an obligation in our lives, since these possibles sculpt the world according to their own characteristics."
This can be seen through the use of the cell phone, which subjects its user to a number of technological diktats, namely the acceleration of time, continuous work, constant connection...It becomes clear that the development of A.I. projects in the background a mechanization of the world that influences the behavior of man, enslaving him vis-à-vis these machines of a new kind. Apart from this enslaving tendency of A.I. which tends to mechanize the world, let us notice that this technology emerges within a current of thought which distills neoliberal values.
The substitution of man by machines aims at overcoming the various flaws that can be observed in humans. Thus, A.I. participates in the reduction of errors at work, facilitates risky explorations ...; in short, these intelligent robots aim to make up for the various failings that humans can experience that can prove costly for companies. These failures that can slow down production within a company and cause it to lose huge revenues.
The idea of mechanization in this sense, is based on making the company profitable, or even increasing the yield. The emphasis on the notion of yield bears the stamp of neoliberalism. This is all the more true as Robert Dutrisac asserts the "entanglement" of A.I. with the neoliberal values of performance, efficiency and productivity.
It is quite logical to think so because the development of A.I. intends to set up a category of beings, which could be taxed as superhuman. It is in fact, an improved version of the human whose endurance in the execution of tasks is essentially aimed at increasing productivity and profits.
In view of the above, one realizes that the automation of most sectors of daily life even if it improves the quality of life, harms the human to some extent via the disappearance of certain jobs, the dependence on intelligent machines, and the reproduction of biases. This state of affairs calls for a ethical framework of A.I. design, whose lack of control could give rise to all sorts of abuses, causing more harm than good to humanity.
Illustration: DepositPhotos - threecvet.gmail.com
References
Bastien L, 2021, "How AI improves productivity in business"
https://www.lebigdata.fr/ia-ameliore-productivite-entreprise
Dutrisac Robert, "The Technicist Threats of Artificial Intelligence", Le Devoir
https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/le-devoir-de-philo-histoire/513927/les-menaces-technicistes-de-l-intelligence-artificielle
Mining and Telecom Institute, "The place of women in AI: towards an egalitarian AI mastery"
https://www.imt-bs.eu/the-place-of-women-in-lia-towards-an-egalitarian-AI-mastery/
Marques Julie , "Artificial intelligence through the prism of an intersectional approach: between negotiations and definitions"
https://journals.openedition.org/ctd/7109
Ravet Jean-Claude, 2018, "Ethics and artificial intelligence", Relations, (795), 5-5.
https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/rel/2018-n795-rel03467/87785ac.pdf
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