Gulf Futures

Artificial Intelligence (AI) As a Product of Post-Modernism

Dr Hichem Karoui

Abstract

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) is often associated with technological advancement and computational innovation. However, few studies account for its inextricable relationship with the sociocultural shifts, characteristic of the postmodern era. This paper posits that the emergence and proliferation of AI should be understood as a product of postmodernity, completing a transformative arc initiated by the Internet. Drawing from various scholarly sources, this analysis bridges technology, social theory, and cultural critique.

The Controversy Over AI

The examination of the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) is infrequently analysed from a sociological perspective that contextualises it within broader cultural shifts. Would we better understand the multiple problems that came with AI’s rise (economical, ethical, etc.) if we address them as side effects of a technological product we control, or should we consider them symptoms of a forthcoming singularity whose horizon is beyond our prediction capacity?

Giant high-tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Open AI, etc., defend the first option, which is precisely denounced by notable former Google engineers who resigned over their divergence with the company, particularly Geoffrey Hinton, Mo Gawdat and Timnit Gebru.

This paper is not concerned with the ongoing controversy broadly mediatised, which, in fact, needs a technical background to seize its actual dimensions. Instead, taking a social scientific perspective, we argue that artificial intelligence (AI) is not solely a result of technological advancement that we control but a representation and completion of the post-modern period, whose issues still elude our regulation mechanisms. Therefore, contextualising the AI’s issues related to its multidimensional impact on our lives into a well-defined sociological framework could give us clues about the possible solutions.

Scepticism, decentralisation and breakdown of conventional binary distinctions

Upon critical examination, it becomes evident that the growth of AI is intricately connected to post-modernism, which is, for Lyotard (1979),  a cultural and intellectual movement characterised by scepticism towards overarching narratives, decentralisation, and the breakdown of conventional binary distinctions such as human/machine and organic/inorganic.[[1]]

We can undoubtedly say that decentralisation and the breakdown of conventional binary distinctions characterise both the Internet and AI. The Internet is a decentralised network of computers that allows users to exchange information without a central authority.[[2]] Similarly, artificial intelligence (AI) is a decentralised system that can learn from data and make judgements without human involvement.[[3]] The Internet, by allowing people to engage with technology in unimaginable ways, and artificial intelligence (AI), by producing machines that can learn and make decisions like humans, undermine traditional binary classifications such as human/machine and organic/inorganic. Finally, it is with scepticism that many thinkers faced the unfettered development of AI technology, while some governments have already expressed the same scepticism regarding the free use of Internet, which they try to control.

Frequently regarded as a precursor of worldwide transformation, the Internet is firmly grounded in post-modern ideology. In his seminal work, Castells (1996) comprehensively analyses the Internet’s impact on society, highlighting its role in fostering a “network society.”[[4]] This transformative phenomenon is characterised by the decentralisation of power structures and the redistribution of information. With its ability to overcome temporal and spatial limitations, the Internet facilitates the development and proliferation of post-modern concepts such as hyper-reality, fragmentation, and cultural relativism. The contribution of Baudrillard (1981) in this context is of particular significance.[[5]]

A summary of the new concerns brought about by AI

A set of issues caused by the rise of AI in the post-modern era need all our attention.

• The rise of AI challenges our understanding of what it means to be human. We are increasingly aware of the constructed nature of reality in the postmodern world. We recognise that no single « correct » way to view the world exists and that our experiences and biases shape our perspectives.
• What is intelligence? AI is further disrupting our understanding of reality by challenging our assumptions about what it means to be intelligent. As AI systems become more sophisticated, they exhibit abilities once thought to be unique to humans, such as creativity, problem-solving, and even empathy.
• AI is compelling us to rethink our place in the world. Is it still true that we are the only intelligent beings on the planet? What does that mean for our sense of identity and purpose if not?
• Uncertainty about the ultimate purpose. The way we interact with the world is changing due to artificial intelligence. As AI systems become more integrated into our lives, they will play a more significant role in our decision-making. This raises concerns about how we can ensure that AI systems are designed to benefit all humans.
• Artificial intelligence is challenging our notions of agency and control. As AI systems gain autonomy, they will make more decisions that affect our lives. This raises questions about who is accountable for AI systems’ actions and how to ensure they are used for good.
• Are we still able to construct our reality? [[6]] Artificial intelligence is blurring the distinction between the real and the virtual. As AI systems advance, they can generate indistinguishable simulations from reality. This raises questions about the nature of reality and how we can tell what is real and what is not.

Blurring the Boundaries

The term “postmodernity” describes the cultural, economic, and social conditions that emerged in the late 20th century. A blurring of boundaries between traditional categories, (such as high and low culture, fact and fiction, and the individual and the collective) characterises postmodernity. This blurring of boundaries is reflected in the development of AI, which has the potential to blur the boundaries between humans and machines, the natural and the artificial, and the real and the virtual.

The Internet is a key technological development that has contributed to the rise of postmodernity. The Internet has enabled people to connect and share information in ways that were not previously possible. This has led to a flattening of hierarchies and a blurring of boundaries between cultures and communities.

The emergence and proliferation of AI is a product of these postmodern conditions. AI is a technology that is constantly evolving and becoming more sophisticated. As AI becomes more powerful, it will increasingly profoundly impact our society. It is important, therefore, to understand the implications of AI for our sociocultural landscape.

Pros and Cons Concisely

Link to Late-Modernism: One perspective suggests that strong AI’s commitment to the computer as a symbol processing machine and its use of models, links it to late-modernism.[[7]]

Postmodern Critique: There are critiques of artificial intelligence from a postmodern perspective. The traditional Western conception of language has been challenged, and researchers argue that an understanding of postmodern views on language can lead to a critique of AI. [[8]]

Integration and Transformation: AI is a technology transforming various sectors of society, including finance, national security, healthcare, criminal justice, transportation, and smart cities. It is being integrated into different fields and has the potential to reshape how society and the economy operate. [[9]]

Skills and Learning: The integration of AI into society requires not only technical skills but also skills in critical reasoning, collaboration, design, visual display of information, and independent thinking. There is a need for “big picture” thinking on AI’s ethical, governance, and societal impact. [[10]]

Postmodern Machine Learning: The interactivity and complexity of machine learning algorithms, particularly deep learning networks, have been described as post-modern due to the difficulty in deconstructing their decision-making processes.[[11]]

Do we understand the era we live in?

When people talk about “post-modernity,” they no longer see the 21st century as a continuation of modernity since the institutions and lifestyles associated with modernity have been supplanted by new institutional elements to such a degree. When we talk about postmodernism, we’re not talking about a new way of life so much as a new method of perceiving ideas, beliefs, and knowledge. Such a view was expressed by Pip Jones [[12]].

Many contemporary societal issues, such as the environmental catastrophe and the dangers posed by new scientific and technical breakthroughs, were not considered by Marx, Weber, or Durkheim. What profound shifts have prompted some to label the present era as post-modern? Jones identifies five distinguishing features of globalisation as one of its most essential aspects.

• The Ascendancy of World Capitalism
• The waning influence of the nation-state.
• Urbanisation and the growth of population.
• Market and marketing globalisation
• The proliferation of the information (network) society.

Here is a table representing major differences and features characterising the two eras.

Table (1): The features of Modernism and Postmodernism

Source: Odabaşı, Y. (2004). [[13]]

AI Challenges

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the postmodern period brings various challenges and issues that apply to many different spheres of human life. The following are some prominent domains where the ramifications of AI are significant:

Ethics: The emergence of AI engenders a plethora of ethical inquiries, including concerns regarding the propensity of AI systems to perpetuate or amplify prevailing prejudices and disparities, the ramifications for privacy and surveillance, and the potential for AI deployment in deleterious manners, such as the utilisation of autonomous weaponry or deepfake technologies. [[14]]

Society: Concerns regarding ethics stemming from the expanding role that AI will play in decision-making in society include invasions of privacy, instances of bias and discrimination, and the possibility of job loss. [[15]]

Economy: AI has the potential to increase productivity, generate new products and services, and open up new revenue sources inside an economy. On the other hand, it may also disrupt the economy and society, leading to fears of job losses and a widening gap between nations and businesses. [[16]]

Law:  Artificial intelligence has the potential to usher in a period of profound change by delivering legal services that are both more effective and affordable. However, this also raises problems regarding the legal and policy frameworks required to foster innovation and protect against its associated hazards. [[17]]

Intellectual Property: Generative artificial intelligence presents problems regarding infringement, rights of use, ownership of AI-generated works, and unlicensed content in training data. [[18]]

Politics: Artificial intelligence can affect political communications and democracy by providing governments with unprecedented surveillance power over citizens, intensifying the spread of misinformation and deep fakes, and undermining democratic and moral values by sustaining and worsening existing social inequities. [[19]]

War and Peace: The use of AI in the pursuit of peace is both possible and desirable. For instance, the United Nations has investigated the role that AI could play in maintaining world peace and security.[[20]]  However, AI-assisted weapons have sparked an arms race and raised concerns about the future of warfare, not to mention asymmetric wars. [[21]]

International Relations: Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform the dynamics of global power, with countries competing to capitalise on its benefits while also addressing the risks it presents. [[22]]

In addition to these spheres, AI can affect other facets of life, such as the provision of healthcare, the education system, and the preservation of the environment. As AI continues to grow, it is essential for politicians, researchers, and society, in general, to solve these difficulties and harness the potential of the technology for the benefit of society as a whole.

Conclusions and a Summary

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has various connections to the post-modern era since both concepts challenge conventional understandings of knowledge, reality, and human experience. The intersection between AI and postmodernism encompasses multiple dimensions.

·      Challenging traditional notions of knowledge and truth:

Postmodernism challenges conventional conceptions of knowledge and truth by interrogating the notion of objective truth and highlighting the significance of language and cultural influences in creating our comprehension of the world. AI systems, namely those utilising machine learning techniques, have the potential to question established conceptions of knowledge. This is due to their ability to acquire information from extensive datasets and produce insights that may not be readily explicable or comprehensible to humans.

·      Blurring the lines between human and artificial intelligence:

Human and artificial intelligence convergence is becoming increasingly indistinct as AI systems improve, exhibiting characteristics that closely mimic human cognitive abilities. This phenomenon poses a significant challenge to our conventional comprehension of intelligence. The convergence of human and artificial intelligence might embody postmodernism’s mistrust towards overarching ideas and dichotomous differentiations.

·      The impact on culture and society:

The potential impact of AI on culture and society is significant, as it has the capacity to transform several domains, including art, literature, politics, and ethics. This phenomenon could embody the postmodern state, as established boundaries and categories are perpetually scrutinised and reevaluated.

·      AI and postmodern critiques:

Several scholars contend that the field’s dependence on rule-based or information-processing methodologies is rooted in an erroneous comprehension of language and meaning. [[23]]The potential for developing more nuanced and context-sensitive AI systems may be realised through integrating postmodern perspectives into AI research.

In sum, an interconnection exists between AI and postmodernism, as both question conventional understandings of knowledge, reality, and the human condition. As artificial intelligence progresses and exerts its influence on society, the interplay between AI and postmodernism is expected to grow increasingly intricate and diverse. Artificial Intelligence expands upon and complicates the characteristics of the post-modern era. Initially, artificial intelligence challenges the conventional dichotomy between organic and inorganic entities by raising inquiries on the fundamental definitions of “intelligence” and “consciousness.”[[24]] Furthermore, it serves as a prime example of decentralisation, as the machine-learning capabilities of AI transfer the centre of “knowledge generation” from human intellect to distributed networks.[[25]] Lastly, the utilisation of AI in the creation of ‘deepfakes’ and the simulation of human interactions, such as chatbots, contributes to the post-modern preoccupation with simulated reality and the blurring of boundaries between what is considered ‘genuine’ and ‘artificial.'[[26]]

Thus, as AI evolves, we must adapt to the new reality since we cannot stop progress. However, there is an urgent need to address these issues to create a peaceful world where humans and AI coexist, where AI, ideally, remains at the service of humanity, not the other way around.

Notes and References

[1] Lyotard, J.-F. (1979). *The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge*. University of Minnesota Press.

[2] Li, Jingyi Jessica, and Xin Tong. “Statistical Hypothesis Testing versus Machine Learning Binary Classification: Distinctions and Guidelines.” Patterns 1, no. 7 (October 2020): 100115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2020.100115.

[3] Gencer, Adem, Soumya Basu, Ittay Eyal, Robbert Van Renesse, and Emin Sirer. “Decentralization in Bitcoin and Ethereum Networks,” March 29, 2018. https://tinyurl.com/c8e9fnsk.

[4] Castells, M. (1996). *The Rise of the Network Society, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Vol. I*. Blackwell.

[5] Baudrillard, J. (1981). *Simulacra and Simulation*. University of Michigan Press.

[6] This refers to a sociological notion that all knowledge is socially generated, and humans are social animals who form their own reality via interactions with others. See: Berger, Peter Ludwig, and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1966.

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[7] Beardon, C. (1994). “Computers, postmodernism and the culture of the artificial.” AI & Soc 8, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02065174

[8] Hooker, John. (1990). “A Postmodern Critique of Artificial Intelligence.” https://doi.org/10.1184/R1/6703226.v1

[9]   Darrell M. West, John R. Allen (2018).”How artificial intelligence is transforming the world,” Brookings.  April 24. 2018. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-artificial-intelligence-is-transforming-the-world/

[10] Blank, D.S. (1999). “The Radical Alternative to Hybrid Systems.” In A. Jagota, T. Plate, L. Shastri, R. Sun (eds), Connectionist Symbol Processing: Dead or Alive?, 1-40, a collective article in Neural Computing Surveys. https://tinyurl.com/nbczmn7b

[11] David D. Nolte (2022). “Post-Modern Machine Learning: The Deep Revolution.” Galileo Unbound, April 18, 2022. https://tinyurl.com/mkkasd8y

[12]  Jones, Pip (2003). Introducing social theory. Malden, MA USA: Distributed in the USA by Blackwell. Ed. Pip Jones.

[13] Odabaşı, Y. (2004). Postmodern pazarlama. İstanbul: Kabital Medya Hizmetleri. Cited in: Ayşe Derya Kahraman, “Relationship of modernism, postmodernism and reflections of it on education,” Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 174 ( 2015 ) 3991 – 3996. ScienceDirect.

[14] Pazzanese , Christina . “Ethical Concerns Mount as AI Takes Bigger Decision-Making Role.” Harvard Gazette, October 26, 2020. https://tinyurl.com/48spxtvb. Also see: UNESCO. “Artificial Intelligence: Examples of Ethical Dilemmas | UNESCO.” www.unesco.org. Accessed September 6, 2023. https://tinyurl.com/yndbz4bh.

[15] Szczepański, Marcin. BRIEFING EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service;  “Economic Impacts of AI”. July 2019. https://tinyurl.com/fmw7nu8k.

[16] ‌Bughin, Jacques, et al. “Modeling the Global Economic Impact of AI | McKinsey.” www.mckinsey.com, September 4, 2018. https://tinyurl.com/vxkheytf.

[17] Wheeler, Tom. “The Three Challenges of AI Regulation.” Brookings, June 15, 2023. https://tinyurl.com/596nyf89. Also see: Villasenor, John. “How AI Will Revolutionize the Practice of Law.” Brookings, March 20, 2023. https://tinyurl.com/2cfd9af4.

[18] Appel, Gil, Juliana Neelbauer, and David A. Schweidel. “Generative AI Has an Intellectual Property Problem.” Harvard Business Review, April 7, 2023. https://tinyurl.com/yc2a3t9t. Also see: Loving, Tiana. “Current AI Copyright Cases – Part 1.” Copyright Alliance, March 30, 2023. https://tinyurl.com/4x62hh94. Also: Wheeler, (2023), op.Cit.

[19] Network, The OECD Forum. “The Good, the Bad and the Algorithmic: What Impact Could Artificial Intelligence Have on Political Communications and Democracy?” The OECD Forum Network, March 31, 2023. https://tinyurl.com/4j6z76pt.

[20] ‌Gavin, Jerome. “Artificial Intelligence for Peacebuilding – Opportunities & Challenges.” Vision of Humanity. Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), December 9, 2022. https://tinyurl.com/bp6njc98.

[21] Masood , Daanish , and Martin Waehlisch. “AI & Global Governance: Robots Will Not Only Wage Future Wars but Also Future Peace.” United Nations University, April 23, 2019. https://tinyurl.com/2b59tvwf.

[22] Powell, Catherine, and Alexandra Dent. “Artificial Intelligence Enters the Political Arena.” Council on Foreign Relations, May 24, 2023. https://tinyurl.com/37kpyefp. Also, see: Meltzer, Joshua P. “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on International Trade.” Brookings, December 20, 2018. https://tinyurl.com/ajtahtfd. Also, Villasenor, John. “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Geopolitics.” Brookings, November 14, 2018. https://tinyurl.com/fc9emjm2.

[23] Hooker, John N. (2018). “A Postmodern Critique of Artificial Intelligence.” Carnegie Mellon University. Journal contribution. https://doi.org/10.1184/R1/6703226.v1

[24] Bryson, J. J. (2010). “Robots should be slaves.” In Y. Wilks (Ed.), *Close engagements with artificial companions: Key social, psychological, ethical and design issues* (pp. 63-74). John Benjamins.

[25] Mitchell, T. M. (1997). *Machine Learning*. McGraw-Hill.

[26] Habermas, J. (1981). *The Theory of Communicative Action, Volume 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society*. Beacon Press.

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