Power is increasingly centralised in the hands of a few Western AI companies. This workshop will explore global AI power dynamics and their impact on local society in Cyprus, through a short presentation and by playtesting a collaborative board game. Cyprus is under AI colonialism’s occupation. A few Western AI companies have control of the global AI infrastructure, pushing their own values, without taking into consideration the rich diversity of experiences of communities around the world. They exploit the natural environment for their own profit, and extract Internet users’ personal data to train AI models.
Inspired by decolonial and feminist approaches, the game encourages reflection from the point of view of a region that is on the sidelines of the global AI race and often left out or misrepresented in AI technologies. In a playful way, the game strives to empower local communities through collective discussion, reflection, and speculative decolonisation.
Alexia Achilleos is an artist and researcher with a background in fine art, archaeology and cultural studies. Her work re-interprets dominant narratives and questions power dynamics found within history, society, geopolitics, but also within AI technology, particularly challenging the idea of technology as universal and objective. Her work has been exhibited at institutions and conferences such as Ars Electronica festival, NeMe Arts Centre, Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), NeurIPS Workshop on Machine Learning for Creativity and Design, and the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Alexia is a PhD Fellow at CYENS Centre of Excellence, and a Research Associate at MADLab, Cyprus University of Technology.
Instagram
alexiaachilleos.com
Instagram
www.instagram.com/alexia.achilleos
Power is increasingly centralised in the hands of a few Western AI companies. This workshop will explore global AI power dynamics and their impact on local society in Cyprus, through a short presentation and by playtesting a collaborative board game. Cyprus is under AI colonialism’s occupation. A few Western AI companies have control of the global AI infrastructure, pushing their own values, without taking into consideration the rich diversity of experiences of communities around the world. They exploit the natural environment for their own profit, and extract Internet users’ personal data to train AI models.
Inspired by decolonial and feminist approaches, the game encourages reflection from the point of view of a region that is on the sidelines of the global AI race and often left out or misrepresented in AI technologies. In a playful way, the game strives to empower local communities through collective discussion, reflection, and speculative decolonisation.
Alexia Achilleos is an artist and researcher with a background in fine art, archaeology and cultural studies. Her work re-interprets dominant narratives and questions power dynamics found within history, society, geopolitics, but also within AI technology, particularly challenging the idea of technology as universal and objective. Her work has been exhibited at institutions and conferences such as Ars Electronica festival, NeMe Arts Centre, Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), NeurIPS Workshop on Machine Learning for Creativity and Design, and the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Alexia is a PhD Fellow at CYENS Centre of Excellence, and a Research Associate at MADLab, Cyprus University of Technology.
Instagram
alexiaachilleos.com
Instagram
www.instagram.com/alexia.achilleos
