Artificiality | Sonder Studio | Substack

AI is based on data. And data is frequently collected with the intent to be quantified, understood, and used across context. That’s why we have things like grade point averages that translate across subject matters and educational institutions. That’s why we perform cost-benefit analyses to normalize the forecasted value of projects—no matter the details. As we deploy more AI that is based on a metrified world, we’re encouraging the quantification of our lives and risk losing the context and subjective value that creates meaning.

In this interview, we talk with C. Thi Nguyen about these large scale metrics, about objectivity and judgment, about how this quantification removes the nuance, contextual sensitivity, and variability to make these measurements legible to the state. And that’s just scratching the surface of this interview.

Thi Nguyen used to be a food writer and is now a philosophy professor at the University of Utah. His research focuses on how social structures and technology can shape our rationality and our agency. He writes about trust, art, games, and communities. His book, Games: Agency as Art, was awarded the American Philosophical Association’s 2021 Book Prize.

About Sonder Studio:

We created Sonder Studio to empower humans in our complex age of machines, data, and AI. Through our strategy, innovation, and change services, we help organizations activate the collective intelligence of humans and AI. We work with leaders in tech, data, and analytics to co-create AI strategies, design innovative AI products and services, and craft change management programs that help their people succeed in a AI-powered, data-centric, complex world. We leverage the new world of foundation models, generative AI, and low-code environments to create an amplified human-machine experience centered on machines that can be a mind for our minds. You can learn more about us at getsonder.com.

Check out some of our recent publications:

• Mind for our Minds: Culture

• Announcing [Your Team’s] Generative AI Summit

• Research brief: C-Suite Strategy Playbook for Generative AI

• Mind for our Minds: Meaning

• Mind for our Minds: Introduction

• Research brief: aiOS—Foundation Models

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Thanks to Jonathan Coulton for our music