E0028 Black Boxes and AI

How does your technology work? Do you have a deep understanding of the tech, or is it effectively a "black box"? And does this even matter? We do a deep dive into the history of the black box, how it's understood when it comes to science and technology, and what that means for AI-assisted science. Dr Implausible can be reached at drimplausible at implausipod dot com Bibliography: Bijker, W., Hughes, T., & Pinch, T. (Eds.). (1987). The Social Construction of Technological Systems. The MIT Press. Koskinen, I. (2023). We Have No Satisfactory Social Epistemology of AI-Based Science. Social Epistemology, 0(0), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2023.2286253 Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford University Press. Latour, B., & Woolgar, S. (1979). Laboratory Life: The construction of scientific facts. Sage Publications. Pierce, D. (2024, January 9). The Rabbit R1 is an AI-powered gadget that can use your apps for you. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/9/24030667/rabbit-r1-ai-action-model-price-release-date rabbit—Keynote. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2024, from https://www.rabbit.tech/keynote Sutter, P. (2023, October 4). AI is already helping astronomers make incredible discoveries. Here’s how. Space.Com. https://www.space.com/astronomy-research-ai-future Weitzman, M. L. (1998). Recombinant Growth*. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 113(2), 331–360. https://doi.org/10.1162/003355398555595 Winner, L. (1993). Upon Opening the Black Box and Finding it Empty: Social Constructivism and the Philosophy of Technology. Science Technology & Human Values, 18(3), 362–378. Reach out to the show Support the show