Naming the Series

The discrepancy between our website’s title and the title of our first reading group series is intentional and by design. Many of us who are trained in the humanities, arts, and social sciences embrace criticality. But we are also aware how criticality could be intimidating or off-putting for our participants from other disciplines. So, while we are aware of problematic tendencies in ways HASS subject expertise in relation to artificial intelligence is often reduced to “ethics,” we have decided to dwell with this very shorthand as an inviting hook and opening for us to transform into something a bit more capacious. In other words, this limitation in our existing vocabulary for discussing emerging technologies in a truly interdisciplinary manner is where the work is called for. It is our hope that our reading group series will help invent a generative language for everyone with different disciplinary backgrounds and methodologies. Here’s to no discipline being instrumentalized in service of the other, and for bearing witness to what fusions of diverse expertise and perspectives can bring forth.