The DIGIt0 project has contributed to the handbook. Jaana Parviainen discusses “the politics of imaginary technologies” i.e., technologies that are (potentially) coming but do not exist yet. Raising hype in media, innovation ecosystems (companies, research projects, universities, start-ups, investors, etc.) around emerging technologies strengthen their network’s ability to shape public opinion in a way that is favorable to AI-driven technologies. Innovation ecosystems around emerging technologies are under the steering of governments, tech giants, and other interest groups. The performative acts of innovation ecosystems help to channel venture investments and R&D funding to emerging technologies.
Focusing on two cases, Parviainen argues that press releases of experiments by scientists and news media recycling this information have played a pivotal role in promoting emerging technologies, but academic researchers and journalists are not necessarily fully aware of their performative role in this ecosystem. She concludes that speculative information about emerging technologies can be called misinformation if the public takes it as a credible picture of the current state of technologies.
Simon Lindgren (ed.) (2023) Handbook of Critical Studies of Artificial Intelligence, Edward Elgar