The Good Robot: Why Technology Needs Feminism

by Eleanor Drage (Editor), Rosi Braidotti (Editor), Kerry McInerney (Editor)

Overview

What is good technology? Is 'good' technology even possible? And how can feminism help us work towards it? The Good Robot addresses these crucial questions through the voices of leading feminist thinkers, activists and technologists. Each thinker provides a snapshot of key challenges, questions and provocations in the field of feminism and technology.

While the question of whether various AI and technological advances can be ethical is not new, the embedded nature of feminist perspectives pulls out whether this perceived 'goodness' or 'wrongness' might actually impact our lives in the 21st century. This book explores both the radical possibilities of technology to disrupt practices of patriarchy, colonialism, racism and beyond but also provides a significant critique of how we can contain the ethical possibilities of entities we cannot predict. In exploring unjust technological practices and engaging critical voices in the tech industry, the existing moral issues are brought to light as well as the possible ethical quagmires.

This book opens a new space of discussion on digital technologies – one that insists that the future of AI is an urgent feminist issue.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350399952
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/22/2024
Series:	Theory in the New Humanities
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.15(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Eleanor Drage is a research associate at the University of Cambridge, UK, and one of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics™ 2022. She is co-host of the podcast The Good Robot and contributor to The Guilty Feminist project.

Rosi Braidotti is Distinguished University Professor and founding Director of the Centre for the Humanities at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She was the Founding Professor of Gender Studies in the Humanities at Utrecht (1988-2005) and the first scientific director of the Netherlands Research School of Women's Studies.

Kerry Mackereth is a research associates at the University of Cambridge, UK, and one of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics™ 2022. She is co-host of the podcast The Good Robot and contributor to The Guilty Feminist project.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements

Introduction: Good Technology Is Feminist, Eleanor Drage and Kerry McInerney (Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, UK)

Part I: Good Relations
1. Good Technology Is Cooperative, Blaise Agüera y Arcas (Google Research)
2. Good Technology Is Messy, Jason Edward Lewis (Concordia University, Canada)
3. Good Technology Is Biophilic, N. Katherine Hayles (Duke University, USA)
4. Good Technology Is Earthly, Rosi Braidotti (Utrecht University, the Netherlands)
5. Good Technology Is Intergenerational, Sneha Revanur (President of Encode Justice)

Part II: Good Systems
6. Good Technology Is Inclusive, Margaret Mitchell (Chief Ethics Scientist at Hugging Face)
7. Good Technology Is Possible - But There Are Conditions, Soraj Hongladarom (Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok)
8. Good Technology Is Community-Centric, Jennifer Lee (American Civil Liberties Union Washington, USA)
9. Good Technology Is Participatory, David Adelani (University College London, UK)

Part III: Good Designs
10. Good Technology Is Vulnerable, Os Keyes (University of Washington, USA)
11. Good Technology Is Slow (to Scale), Ranjit Singh (Data & Society Research Institute)
12. Good Technology Accessible, Not Just “Good Enough”, Meryl Alper (Northeastern University, UK)
13. Good Technology Needs an Emergency Exit Door, Priya Goswami (Co-Founder of Sahiyo and Mumkin)
14. Good Technology…Invites Response, hannah holtzclaw (Simon Fraser University, Canada) and Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (Simon Fraser University, Canada)

Part IV: Good Visions
15. Good Technology Is a Portal to Other Worlds, Neda Atanasoski (UC Santa Cruz, USA) and Felicity Amaya Schaeffer (UC Santa Cruz, USA)
16. Good Technology Is/Not Asian Women, Anne Anlin Cheng (Princeton University, USA)
17. Good Technology Holds Up a Mirror to Ourselves, Michele Elam (Stanford University, USA)
18. Good Technology Needs Good Stories, Kanta Dihal (Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, UK)

Part V: Good Rebellions
19. Good Technology Challenges Power, Catherine D'Ignazio (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
20. Good Technology Is Free (At Least for a Moment), Frances Negrón-Muntaner (University of Columbia, USA)
21. Good Technology Defies its Military Origins, Kate Chandler (Georgetown University, USA)
22. Good Technology Is a Fantasy, Jack Halberstam (Columbia University, USA)

Editorial Reviews

A marvelous collection of 22 short essays derived from a similarly titled podcast series hosted by the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies.” —Choice

From the Publisher