AI Skeptics (Resisting AI, week 1)
Hello fellow skeptics (weird, sorry, not gonna do that again)
We're starting Resisting AI by Dan McQuillan. If you don't have the book yet, you should order it now.
This week I'm reading the following:
- Resisting AI: "Introduction"
- "Against AI: Critical Refusal in the Library" by Kailyn "Kay" Slater
On Thursday at 8pm we'll get together for the first time this year to discuss the readings, and maybe think about what we want out of this book and the readings. But more on that when Thursday comes around.
If you want a look at what my schedule, that's at the end of this email.
Okay, I think that's everything for this week. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc... please feel free to reach out. Talk soon.
(Also, if you come across something you think we'd like to read, I'd love to hear about it. Please contact me.)
appendix
You don't need to read this stuff, but it might be useful info. Or these are just keywords to help you find this email if you need it.
format
Just a repeat of the previous email's explanation of how this reading group works:
- newsletter: I send updates on Mondays and Thursdays. In the Monday updates, I'll point to what to read; in the Thursday updates, I'll send an icebreaker question to think about, and a reminder of where & how to join the video chat later that day.
- video chats: Thursdays at 8pm (ET) we have a video chat1 where we talk about that week's readings. Sometimes we'll have a guest to talk about something related to what we read that week.
- group chat: if you want to chat with people on signal, we have a pretty active group chat. You can join the signal group chat here.
schedule
| CHAPTER | OTHER READING | VIDEO CHAT | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Introduction | "Against AI" | Jan 12 | Jan 15 |
| Operations of AI | Jan 19 | Jan 22 | |
| Collateral Damage | Jan 26 | Jan 29 | |
| AI Violence | Feb 2 | Feb 5 | |
| Necropolitics | Feb 9 | Feb 12 | |
| Post-machine Learning | Feb 16 | Feb 19 | |
| People's Councils | Feb 23 | Feb 26 | |
| Anti-facist AI | Mar 2 | Mar 5 |
If I made a calendar that people could subscribe to, would that be useful? Like an ical thing that you could add to your calendar. Let me know if it would be useful.
next books
Our next book will be Why We Fear AI by Hagen Blix & Ingeborg Glimmer. We'll probably start in March, so make plans to order it at your convenience.
After that, we'll read Disabling Intelligences by Rua Williams.
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I use Jitsi for video chats. Jitsi is a free web-based video chat service kind of like Zoom, but it's free, absent of generative AI stuff, and not connected to people's work accounts. ↩
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If you've made (written, recorded, etc...) something you'd like to share - a zine, an blog post, an academic paper, a video, or whatever else - email me or message me on signal. ↩