COMPUTERS ARE HUMAN ALL THE WAY DOWN
Alison Langmead
Alison Langmead wants the world to think differently about artificial intelligence (AI). She doesn’t even like the phrase “artificial intelligence.” She’d prefer people to focus instead on the humanity in AI so that they better understand the term and quell concerns that these technologies could run amok.
“Computers are human all the way down,” says Langmead, clinical professor in the Department of History of Art and Architecture in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences with a joint appointment in the School of Computing and Information. “Digital computing was our idea, starting from the original thought about how to model arithmetic through electricity and logic. Year after year, we have layered new forms of abstraction on that original idea, modeling more than just arithmetic and building up to what’s now known as AI. There is a deep, layered history of human decision making.”
Langmead believes that current hype, misunderstandings and even panic regarding AI are worthy of deep, multidisciplinary investigation. The problem is socio-technical and political in nature, she adds, not just a computer science issue.
With a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, she developed a workshop titled “Teaching Art History with AI” to help college educators understand and teach students about image-generation technologies—computer programs that use deep learning algorithms to produce digital images from patterns found in millions of pre-existing digital images. The response was overwhelming, with three times the number of applications than spots, so Langmead is developing open-access resources. The educators can now spread that knowledge to students on an exponential scale.
“Digital computing was our idea, starting from the original thought about how to model arithmetic through electricity and logic. Year after year, we have layered new forms of abstraction on that original idea, modeling more than just arithmetic and building up to what’s now known as AI. There is a deep, layered history of human decision making.”
Langmead also leads the DHRX: Digital Humanities Research at Pitt, an initiative that highlights innovative, digitally focused academic work across disciplines and Pitt campuses. The network supports the creative use of digital technologies in humanities and social science research.