The Good Robot

In this part 2 episode, Eleanor continues her conversation with Lisa Nakamura about her latest book, The Inattention Economy. They delve deeper into the digital labor of women of color, the rise of influencers like Tila Tequila, and the pressing issues of online toxicity, exploitation, and reparations. Discover how historical and cultural shifts have shaped modern fame and the importance of reparations in the digital age. Edited by: Meibel Dabodabo

In this episode, we talk to Lisa Nakamura, Professor at the University of Michigan and author of The Inattention Economy: Seeing the Digital Labour of Women of Colour. Lisa reflects on how race, gender, and power shape the histories of digital technology, focusing on the often overlooked labour that has made computing possible. She discusses the work of Navajo women in semiconductor manufacturing, the role of Japanese Americans in early tech production, and why attention, care, and recognition matter for understanding digital culture today.

In this episode, Tara Fickle, an associate professor of Asian American studies, delves into the intersection of race and gaming, introducing the concept of ludo-orientalism. She explores how racial stereotypes shape perceptions of Asian gamers and discusses the role of gender in e-sport culture. Edited by: Meibel Dabodabo

In this episode, Tomasz Hollanek argues that design is central to AI ethics. We discuss what role designers should play in AI ethics, the significance of AI literacy, and the responsibility of journalists in reporting on AI technologies. Reading List: Leverhulme Center for the Future of IntelligenceDonal Norman's The Design of Everyday ThingsAnthony Dunne and Fiona Raby's innovations in design theoryAisha Sobey's Social AI PolicyPhilip Agre's critical technical practiceHigh-Risk EU AI Act Toolkit,AI Act Article 4

In this episode, we talk to Beryl Pong, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the University of Cambridge, where she leads the Centre for Drones and Culture. Beryl reflects on what it means to think about drones as “good” or “ethical” technologies and how it can be assessed through its socio-political context. Beryl examines the dual nature of drones, looking at both their humanitarian uses and the ethical implications of their deployment in civilian life. The discussion also touches on the aesthetics of drones and their representation in popular culture, concluding with a reflection on drone light shows as a new form of cultural expression.

In this episode, Amy Gaeta, a researcher at the Centre for Drones and Culture and the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, discusses the how drones both uphold and subvert traditional masculine norms and the implications of their use in various contexts, from hobbyist communities to pornography. The conversation explores the complexities of gender dynamics in technology and the potential for systemic change in societal perceptions. Edited by: Meibel Dabodabo

In this episode, Aisha Sobey, a research fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, explores how anti-fat bias shapes our digital lives. She discusses its effects on health technologies, social media, and generative AI, and explains why anti-fatness must be seen as a systemic issue. The conversation also highlights how ideas from fat liberation can help create more inclusive and fair technological design.

In this episode, Felienne Hermans, a professor of computer science education, discusses the intersection of feminism and programming. She shares her experiences in designing programming languages, particularly Hedy, which supports 70 languages, including Arabic. The conversation explores the challenges of linguistic diversity in programming and the need for systemic change in the tech community.

In this episode we talk to Nassim Parvin and Neda Atanasoski, the editors of the book TechnoCreep. We discuss what makes a technology creepy and the rise of so-called creepy technologies during COVID-19. Neda and Nassim argue that creepiness is associated with surveillance and that privacy is posited as the solution to so-called creepy tech. However, they highlight the way that race and gender have shaped who has the right to privacy and argue that we need to go beyond the privacy/surveillance binary when thinking about creep. Their volume explores instead how feminists are reclaiming the idea of creep, from how the slow growth of creep or creepiness challenges the tech industry's emphasis on radical innovation, to how the idea of creep is used to police what's considered normal or desirable.

In this episode, we talk to N. Katherine Hayles who's the distinguished research professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the James B. Duke Professor Emerita from Duke University. Her prolific research focuses on the relationship between science, literature and technology in the 20th and 21st centuries. We explore her newest book, Bacteria to AI: Human Futures with Our Nonhuman Symbionts, and discuss how the biological concept of symbiosis can inform the relationships we have with AI; how a neural network experiences the world; and whether ChatGPT can be conscious.

In this episode, Eleanor talks to Alexander Thomas, a filmmaker and academic who leads the BA in Media Production at the University of East London. They discuss his new book about transhumanism, a philosophical movement that aims to improve human capabilities through technology and whose followers includes Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Larry Page, and also apparently the DJ Steve Aoki. Alex is himself one of the foremost commentators on transhumanism. He explores transhumanist fantasies about the future of the human, is obsessed with the extremes of possibility: they either think that AI will bring us radical abundance or total extinction. Transhumanism, Alexander says in this episode, reduces life down to information processing and intelligence, which amounts to a kind of IQ fetishism.

In this episode, we talk to digital media theorist and artist Laila Shereen Sakr, who also performs under the name VJ Um Amel. We discuss her work making data about the outer world both visible and emotional. We explore what Laila calls the "surveyed and targeted Arab data body" and the incredible work she does creating Arab futuristic video games that both represent Arab cultures and project them into the future. We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode we talked to Kyla Wazana Tompkins, chair of the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality studies at the University of Buffalo. She gives incredible insight into the relationship between the history of science and the history of food law and policy. We look at legislation like the 1906 Food and Drug Act, and how we look at cells shaped the way that the state categorizes toxicants and narcotics, according to their own ideas about race, national identity, and the body. From $40 LA smoothies to the fermentation practices of the Appalachian peoples, we explore how the way we eat is always bound up in shaped by ideas of race and gender, form the past through to the present.

To develop voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, companies spend years investigating what sounds like a human voice and what doesn't. But what we've ended up with is just one possibility of the kinds of voices that we could be interacting with. In this episode, we talked to sound engineer Frederik Juutilainen, and Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen, Stina Hasse Jørgensen, about their participation in [multi'vocal], an experimental research project that created an alternative voice assistant by asking people at a rock festival in Denmark to speak into a portable recording box. We talk about voice assistants' inability to stutter, lisp and code switch, and whether a voice can express multiple personalities, genders and ages.

In this episode, we go shopping with artist and performer, Laura Allcorn. We enter into her practice, which is called the Institute for Comedic Inquiry, to learn how she pairs humour and entertainment with participatory public engagement methods to raise awareness about bizarre and dangerous uses of AI. Laura uses comedy to skewer all manner of ethically questionable technologies, from gait surveillance to shopping algorithms. We participate in one of Laura's performances in this episode, 'SKU-MARKET', an algorithmic shopping platform that promises to know you better than you know yourself. Stay tuned for what the algorithm says about us...

In this episode, we talk to Anne Pasek, the Canada Research Chair in Media Culture and the Environment, and an Associate Professor between the Department of Cultural Studies and the School of the Environment at Trent University. We love Anne for lots of reasons, not least because she has a 50 watt solar panel, a little Raspberry Pi computer, and an acid battery, all in her backyard, hosting a server. Together we discuss pleasurable ways of responding to climate anxiety, what would happen if the internet wasn't always on, but instead functioned in tandem with the sun, and why addressing climate crisis isn't necessarily about living with less, but learning to live in sync.

In this episode, we talk to Sarah Ciston, an artist, coder, writer, and critical AI scholar. We asked Sarah to talk about this badass chatbot they created called Ladymouth, which responds to trolls and incels on hate forums. We discussed the difficult labor of content moderation and the long lasting effects of trying to do feminist work online. We also talk about the surprising things that incels and feminists have in common and whether you can use AI to change people's minds and establish common humanity at scale.

In this episode we talk to two activists, Hat and Nell, from the organisation Stop Oxevision, who are fighting against the rollout of surveillance technologies used on mental health wards in the United Kingdom (UK). We explore how surveillance on mental health wards affects patients who never know exactly when they're being watched, and how surveillance technologies in mental health wards are implemented within a much wider context of unequal power relationships. We also reflect on resistance, solidarity, and friendship as well as the power of activism to share information and combat oppressive technologies. Please note that this episode does contain distressing content, including references to self harm.

In this episode, we talk to Sebastián Lehuedé, a Lecturer in Ethics, AI, and Society at King's College London. We talk about data activism in Chile, how water-intensive lithium extraction affects people living in the Atacama desert, the importance of reflexive research ethics, and an accidental Sunday afternoon shot of tequila.

In this episode, we talked to Jill Walker Rettberg, Professor of Digital Culture at the University of Bergen in Norway. In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about machine vision's origins in polished volcanic glass, whether or not we'll actually have self-driving cars, and that famous photo-shopped Mother's Day Photo released by Kate Middleton in March, 2024.