sundance documentary Ghost in the Machine Boldly declares that the discovery of artificial intelligence and Silicon Valley itself is rooted in eugenics.
Director Valerie Veitch says the rise of techno-fascism by people like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel is a feature, not a bug. This may seem exaggerated, but Ghost in the MachineWhich is built around interviews with philosophers, AI researchers, historians and computer scientists, leaving no room for doubt.
If you’ve been following the meteoric rise of AI, or Silicon Valley in general, Veatch’s systematic deconstruction of the technology doesn’t really discover anything new. The film begins with the utter failure of Microsoft’s Tay chatbot, which wasted no time in becoming a Hitler-loving white supremacist. This has reiterated the environmental impacts of AI datacenters, as well as the ways in which tech companies rely on low-wage workers from Africa and elsewhere to improve their algorithms.
But even I was surprised to learn that we can trace the influence of eugenics in technology back to Karl Pearson, a mathematician who pioneered the field of statistics, and who spent his life trying to measure differences between races. (Guess who he considered superior.) His legacy was continued by Transistor co-creator William Shockley, a reputed white supremacist who spent his later years supporting (now debunked) theories of IQ and racial differences.
As a Stanford engineering professor, Shockley fostered a culture of prioritizing white men over women and minorities, which ultimately shaped Silicon Valley as it is today. His thinking may have had an influence on Stanford researcher John McCarthy, who coined the term “artificial intelligence” in 1955.
With such roots, Elon Musk — known for spreading bigotry online, fostering an allegedly racist work environment at Tesla, and occasionally giving a few Nazi salutes — looks less like an anomaly than part of a pattern. Ghost in the Machine Asks a simple question: How can we trust men like this (and almost always men who look like Musk) about our future?
Through its many interviews, including AI researcher Dr. Emily Bender, historian Becca Lewis, and media theorist Douglas Rushkoff. Ghost in the Machine Portrays the rise of AI as a fascist project aimed at dehumanizing humans and installing a techno-elite as our rightful rulers. Given how much our lives are already dominated by gadgets and social networks from companies that pioneered addictive engagement over user security, it’s easy to imagine history repeating itself with AI.
Ghost in the Machine That leaves no room for considering the potential benefits around AI, which may lead proponents of the technology to dismiss it as a hit-job. But we’re currently at the top of the AI hype cycle, because Big Tech has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in this technology, and spent years shoving it down our throats without ever proving why it’s actually useful to many people. AI should be able to take some criticism.
Ghost in the Machine is available to watch Sundance Film Festival website and streaming apps From today till the end of Sunday 1st February.
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