Lecture Series “Robust AI”: Fabian Offert

The next lecture in our lecture series will be given by Prof. Dr. Fabian Offert on the topic of “Has (AI) Critique Run Out of Steam?”.

When & where:

Thursday, January 9, 2025, 4 pm at Bielefeld University (Room X B2-103) or online. Join us via Zoom https://uni-bielefeld.zoom-x.de/j/62228687309?pwd=z0wonDfT8yD4yuCiWlZpDa8E34NY3E.1

Abstract:

What is the method of Critical AI Studies? So far, this emerging discipline has almost exclusively resorted to porting methodological gambits from established disciplinary configurations and apply ing them onto the new object/assemblage/practice that is generative AI. In this talk I examine the repercussions of this methodological conservatism. More specifically, I uncover three casuistries in how the concepts of benchmarks, black boxes and stacks are considered by humanistic studies of artificial intelligence, leading to a critical landscape that hopelessly lags behind the technical status quo. I finally call for, and point towards, a more technically sound set of methodologies that might take into account humanistic strengths in the “close reading” of technical objects without foreclosing the potential offered by technical specificity.

Speaker:

Fabian Offert is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Fabian Offert’s research and teaching focuses on the digital/computational humanities, with a special interest in the epistemology and aesthetics of computer vision and machine learning. His current book project looks at Machine Visual Culture in the age of foundation models. He is principal investigator of the international research project “AI Forensics” (2022-25), funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, and was principal investigator of the UCHRI multi campus research group “Critical Machine Learning Studies” (2021-22), which aimed to establish a materialist perspective on artificial intelligence. Before joining the faculty at UCSB, he served as postdoctoral researcher in the German Research Foundation’s special interest group “The Digital Image”, associated researcher in the Critical Artificial Intelligence Group (KIM) at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, and Assistant Curator at ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany.