What pictures come to your mind when you are thinking about AI?
Is AI a complicated set of algorithms in an advanced computer program? Is it an information tool intended to improve customer service? Is it Case, William Gibson’s hacker, falling in love with his virtual Molly in Neuromancer? Is it an imaginary door to a dangerous future? Or maybe it is just a mirror of your own Self?
The answers to these questions differ considerably and depend on a variety of factors, from educational background, social environment and computer literacy, up to traditional values of the culture we grew up in. Our background shapes to a great extent the way we perceive the world around us, and technology has become a central part of the world. Yet, many of these factors are not embedded in the business world and in the development of AI. Instead of functioning as smooth communicators between AI and its users, they remain almost invisible and often misused.
The presentation focuses on the importance of cultural and social factors in the development and design of AI in the contemporary global world. It will raise key issues that should be addressed by every person in the field, from computer developers to intellectuals thinks, such as the importance of proper semantics and the sensitivities of language, the psychological importance of clear shape and harmony of colors, the importance of religious beliefs in shaping emotions towards AI, and even the significance of a sense of humor in different cultures and languages.
