Understanding the affect of algorithmic publics – Public lecture

On 15 July at 18:00 I will be guest in the lecture series of the CRC “Affective Societies” in Berlin. The series discusses “affective publics” and I will talk about “Understanding the affect of algorithmic publics”. I look at the concepts of affect that are at work in widely discussed affective technologies, such as Cambridge Analytica’s predictions or so called “dark patterns” that aim at manipulating users of digital media. I will show that these concepts of affectivity conform to a very specific view on affect that is driven more by computational feasibility rather than social adequacy. I will present a different reading of these technologies based on affect theories from cultural theory.

The lecture as well as the rest of the series is open for participation online!

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Our approach to explainable AI

During the last year, I had the chance to work with many many colleagues in Paderborn and Bielefeld to develop a new approach to explainable AI. In contrast to many others working in the field we do not conceive of explainability as the theoretical availability of information about algorithms and their function. Rather, we take explanation seriously as an act of communication, e.g. in order to justify or scrutinize an algorithmic result. In such uses explanations need to speak to certain social settings, conform to ethical or legal requirements and respect the interests and capabilities of the receiver of explanations. We aim to develop a concept of explainable AI that does justice to these requirements. Our approach has now been published here.

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Pandemic break

During the pandemic I was very happy to have the chance to present my work in various locations that I would not have travelled to, probably. Still, the disease meant so much additional work that I could not update this site as usual. I will resume that now…

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Concepts of the digital society: Privacy. Jetzt Online!

Das Internet Policy Review gibt eine von Christian Katzenbach and Thomas Christian Bächle betreute Reihe heraus, die in schönen open-access(!) Texten die elementeren Begriffe der digitalen Gesellschaft erörtern. Schön an der Reihe ist auch, dass die meisten Texte von mehreren Autor_innen aus verschiedenen Fächern geschrieben werden. Jetzt findet sich dort auch der Text von Carsten Ochs und mir zu: Privacy.

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Sammelband zur Privatheit erschienen

Gerade ist unser Sammelband zur Privatheit erschienen:

Anders als der Titel suggeriert, ist dieser Band nicht nur ein Buch über Privatheit im digitalen Zeitalter. Motiviert ist dieser Band insbesondere durch die Beobachtung, dass aktuelle Neuverortungen des Privaten (sicher auch angestoßen durch die Digitalisierung) sich in produktiver Weise ein breites Spektrum theoretischer Grundlagen erschließen, welche weit über die „Herkunft“ des Privaten in liberalen Theorien hinausgehen.

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