Fay Gale Memorial Lecture: Decolonising Artificial Intelligence?

Abstract

"Research background The Fay Gale Memorial Lecture is hosted by the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and was named in honour of Professor Gwendoline Fay Gale AO. In 2018, the lecture was delivered by Professor Genevieve Bell, entitled ‘Decolonising Artificial Intelligence’. The lecture mobilised decolonisation as a critical tool to disrupt the dominant research agenda of artificial intelligence as it was established in 1956, locating alternative genealogies, perspectives and epistemologies.

Research contribution This research is situated within an emerging discourse which explores the possibility of ‘decolonising AI’, demonstrating how colonial power is embedded in technological systems and considering how AI can be ethical and sustainable. In turn, this lecture makes an important contribution to the fields of distributing computing and human-centred computing by subjecting artificial intelligence (AI) to several anthropologically inspired interventions.

Research significance The Fay Gale Memorial Lecture is a highly prestigious mantle to assume, giving weight to the intellectual merit of Bell’s research within the academy. Furthermore, the lecture was recorded in Rachel Adam’s 2020 article ‘Can artificial intelligence be decolonized’ as one of the earliest academic uses of the term ‘decolonising AI’. " Show more