In our rapidly digitizing world, humans have been handing over increased responsibility to AI and other digital tools. We’re creating art and writing with Dall-E and ChatGPT, and asking algorithms to weigh in on important decisions like judicial sentencing and financial loans. A new textbook co-edited by SFI External Professor Allison Stanger (Middlebury College) explores the implications of allowing algorithms to make decisions for us and the best practices for integrating algorithms into our lives.
The free, open-source Introduction to Digital Humanism invites a human-centered approach to digital technology and weaves ethics, philosophy, and history into conversations about our modern age. In this multidisciplinary book of nearly 40 chapters, various authors delve into a wide range of digital advances and their consequences — both constructive and concerning — for humanity. For instance, one chapter explains the hidden labor involved in AI, involving countless underpaid workers cleaning, labeling, and preparing data for AI training. Another chapter explores the threat various technologies pose to our privacy, as many companies collect and commodify our personal data. The book evaluates fundamental intersections between AI and aspects of our society, like labor rights and democracy, and then anticipates how relinquishing our decision-making to AI could change the way we work, exacerbate existing inequalities, and threaten our democracy.
“Obviously, this is a rapidly evolving topic, but to the extent possible, we tried to emphasize the issues that are evergreen,” says Stanger. “Contemplating how best to uphold human dignity in the face of rapid technological innovation is the lodestar of the project.”
While aimed at students and teachers, the book covers many topics of current interest to policymakers, such as facilitating access to digital resources, protecting human agency, and improving user privacy. The book is arranged into three parts. The first, “Background,” covers the history and philosophical roots of digital humanism, computing, and the digital revolution to the social responsibilities and gender perspectives scientists and technologists need to consider moving forward. The second section, “Digital Humanism: A System’s View,” covers general considerations in developing and changing technology with humanity in mind, such as facilitating access to technology and creating trustworthy AI. The final section, “Critical and Societal Issues of Digital Systems,” delves into specific, pressing issues raised by advancing technologies like recommender systems and cryptocurrencies.
Each chapter tackles a unique aspect of digital humanism and provides discussion questions and further reading suggestions. Whoever may be reading, they are sure to walk away with a better idea of how to use technology to create a sustainable, equitable, and responsible future. For humans to coexist with technology, it is imperative that we keep humans at the center of new policies and new inventions. This book offers the necessary tools to do so.