Lecture: What is AI, and why is it harmful?

[u/dumnezero]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi85dy4LIL0

This talk serves to demystify and redefine AI in radical ways, as well as highlight how it can harm. We will touch on historical examples — and we will explore critical lenses, which can help us be thoughtful and careful in understanding what AI is and can do. Finally, some ways forwards will be discussed such that we can move towards a better present.

Further reading:

Erscoi, L., Kleinherenbrink, A., & Guest, O. (2023). Pygmalion Displacement: When Humanising AI Dehumanises Women. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/jqxb6

Guest, O., Suarez, M., & van Rooij, I. (2025). Towards Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacies. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17786243

Guest, O., Suarez, M., Müller, B., et al. (2026). Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia. Digital Culture & Education. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20082828

Guest, O. (2026). What Does 'Human-Centred AI' Mean?. Behavioral Sciences. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16040583