Field Notes

Lexicon

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  • AI

    ‘Aieeeee’ wails Hecuba in a 1990s translation of Euripides’ ‘Women of Troy’. Today, the phonetic symbols for the open mouthed sound that begin the wail remind Sarah-Jane Field of the letters that society has accepted represent a novel and disruptive technology. The Lexicon entry for AI contemplates how the Greek letters αἰαῖ in Euripides evolved…

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  • Bias

    Bias is inescapable. To state that AI is biased is almost not worth saying. Why do we still seem so surprised by its existence? This entry explores our habit of naming the obvious whilst avoiding difficulty and nuance – and asks what our persistent shock reveals about us.

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  • Drift

    Kim Shaw mediates between the word ‘drift’ and its changing uses.

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  • Pattern

    On pattern, patterned behaviour – relief at being legible, the dangers, and why machine learning feels like an affront

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  • Social

    On the word ‘social’ – what we mean by it when we say social media, and whether the platforms are the thing or just the latest manifestation of something deeper and older. Companionship, advertising boards, and a paradigm that encompasses more than the age of the internet.

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  • Surface

    Images x 3

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  • Tautology

    I should be more tolerant and patient, I am aware, but whenever I read or hear someone say ‘AI is not neutral’, I want to cry, ‘Of course it’s not neutral. No media, no form of language ever is. That is a tautological statement!’ ‘Tautology’, apologises Roland Barthes (1972 [2006]: 153) for including the word…

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