Date/Time
Date(s) - Fri 6 December
17:00 - 19:00
An internationally renowned author and technology academic will bring a ‘ruthless’ critique of AI and its role in the modern world to New Zealand in December for a speaking tour.
Jathan Sadowski is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and author of the book Too Smart, about the political economy of technology. He also hosts the long-running weekly technology podcast This Machine Kills.
Sadowski’s new book, The Mechanic and the Luddite: A Ruthless Criticism of Technology and Capitalism is due for international release in January 2025.
Jathan’s series of talks will take place in the first week of December. They will include a 35-minute keynote address, discussing “the pressing issues of AI and labour, higher-education, the rhetoric of adaptation, the politics of tech procurement, and the political economy of AI.” He will outline three key concepts that are crucial for a political economic analysis—and a ruthless criticism—of AI and capitalism: 1) innovation realism, 2) cheap data, and 3) the perpetual value machine.
The keynote will be followed by a panel discussion by local academics and commentators with knowledge and expertise on AI’s impact in New Zealand.
PANELLISTS
• Dr Sarah Hendrica Bickerton, Lecturer, Public Policy, School of Social Science, University of Auckland
• Mandy Henk, Co-founder, Dark Times Academy
• Dr Daniel Wilson, Lecturer, School of Computer Science, University of Auckland
This tour is presented by Tertiary Education Union (TEU) in partnership with:
• Dark Times Academy
• Pūtaiao ki te Pāpori Science in Society
• The Media Studies programmes at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington
• The Media, Film and Communication/Pāpāho, Whitiāhua, Pārokoroko
• The Communications programme Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland
• Counterfutures.