The High Cost of Outsourcing Thought: On the Ideology of Artificial Intelligence
Thursday, April 24, 2025 | 5–8 PM | Merrill Cultural Center
The 2025 Convocation speaker was Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan. His talk examined the ideas that have motivated the rush to deploy both generative artificial intelligence and predictive artificial intelligence into our computer systems and our lives. It considered the effects on our collective intelligence and our habits of creativity and collaboration. What problem do we hope to solve with this suite of technologies? What do we gain? What do we lose? And how should those questions shape how educators and students interface with these technologies?
Afterwards, Dr. Vaidhyanathan was joined in conversation by UC Santa Cruz Linguistics Professor Pranav Anand.
About the Speaker
Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan is the Robertson Professor of Media Studies and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2018), Intellectual Property: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2017), and The Googlization of Everything — and Why We Should Worry (University of California Press, 2011). After five years as a professional journalist, he earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities and a Faculty Associate of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. He was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, and resides in Charlottesville, Virginia.