Artificial Unintelligence with Meredith Broussard

Meredith Broussard is an Associate Professor in the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University and author of 'Artificial Unintelligence' (MIT Press). A former features editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer and software developer at AT&T Bell Labs and the MIT Media Lab, she has written articles and essays for the Atlantic, Harper's, Slate, the Washington Post, and other publications.

Broussard, a software developer and journalist, reminds us that there are fundamental limits to what we can (and should) do with technology. In this presentation, she offers a guide to understanding the inner workings and outer limits of technology—and issues a warning that we should never assume that computers always get things right.

Making a case against technochauvinism—the belief that technology is always the solution—Broussard argues that it's just not true that social problems would inevitably retreat before a digitally enabled Utopia. In her book, Broussard conducts a series of experiments to draw clear attention to her main points, across driverless cars, machine learning, and AI software. If we understand the limits of what we can do with technology, Broussard tells us, we can make better choices about what we should do with it to make the world better for everyone.