Van Hasseltlezing | Van Hasselt Lecture

Farewell to homo creans? AI and the future of work | Lisa Herzog

When the artist and film maker Hito Steyerl was asked, recently, “Can I be replaced by AI?”, her answer was brief: “Yes, but why?” In this talk, I explore a perspective that is often missing in discussions of AI: that of workers who are supposed to be replaced and managed by it. While there is, rightly, attention to the workers behind AI, e.g. annotators, those who are laboring under it, are less often in focus. Arguably, this is the case because in current mainstream theories of value creation, these workers are a cost factor, not part of a moral community that produces value together. I explore what working with and under AI means for the future of work along four axes: pedagogy, community, meaning, and politics. As democratic citizens, we have a choice to make about the uses of AI that may be beneficial for us as customers and investors, but that denies us our dignity as creative, active agents who create value together. AI thus forces a reckoning with the question of which work is worth doing, for whom, by whom, and why.

Prof. Lisa Herzog is a German philosopher and social scientist working at the intersection of political philosophy and economic thought. Since October 1, 2019, she has been a professor of philosophy at the Centre for Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Groningen.

Prof.dr.ir. Hans Hellendoorn is Vice-Rector Magnificus/Vice President Education at TU Delft.

Dr. Michael Klenk is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Technology TU Delft.

The Van Hasselt Lecture is organised jointly by the department Values, Technology and Innovation of the Faculty of Technology, Policy & Management and Studium Generale TU Delft. 

De voertaal is Engels | English