The Good Robot
Join Dr Eleanor Drage and Dr Kerry McInerney as they ask the experts: what is good technology? Is ‘good’ technology even possible? And how can feminism help us work towards it? Each week, they invite scholars, industry practitioners, activists, and more to provide their unique perspective on what feminism can bring to the tech industry and the way that we think about technology. With each conversation, The Good Robot asks how feminism can provide new perspectives on technology’s biggest problems.
The Good Robot
The Mythology of AI with Stephen Cave
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Why do we call it "Artificial Intelligence"? It wasn't the only name on the table in 1956, but it’s the one that stuck, and according to Dr. Stephen Cave, that’s because it tapped into 3,000 years of deep-seated mythology.
In this episode, Kerry McInerney sits down with Dr. Stephen Cave to discuss his new book (co-authored with Dr. Kanta Dihal) on the origin myths of AI. They dive into the "value-laden" history of technology, exploring how the binary of the artificial vs. the natural was used to justify colonial conquest, and how the very concept of intelligence was forged by card-carrying eugenicists to structure society into hierarchies of "fitness". From the labs of Silicon Valley to the history of SATs (Standard Assessment Tests), Dr. Cave illustrates how these old stories continue to shape who gets to build our future and whose voices are sidelined.
Edited by Meibel Dabodabo