
Truth Makers (Part I)
01/30/24 • 42 min
In this episode, we discuss how machine learning and artificial intelligence adopt hegemonic discourse and existing biases and, what’s more, amplify them, and we talk to some of the people out there who are fighting back. Our guests are Kasia Chmielinski (they/them) - Co-Founder of the Data Nutrition Project, an initiative that builds tools to mitigate bias in artificial intelligence - and Ndapewa Onyothi Wilhelmina Nekoto - an independent researcher & community builder, part of Masakhane.
Resources:
QT.bot - Sitting here with you in the future by Lucas LaRochelle (CA)
Ceux sans qui la terre ne serait pas la terre by David Shongo (CD)
On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? by Emily M. Bender, Timnit Gebru, Angelina McMillan-Major, and Shmargaret Shmitchell
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Host & Producer: Ana-Maria Carabelea
Editing: Ana-Maria Carabelea
Music: Karl Julian Schmidinger
________________________
Host & Producer: Ana-Maria Carabelea
Editing: Ana-Maria Carabelea
Music: Karl Julian Schmidinger
The Digital Deal Podcast is part of European Digital Deal, a project co-funded by Creative Europe and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport. Views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and guests only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) can be held responsible for them.
In this episode, we discuss how machine learning and artificial intelligence adopt hegemonic discourse and existing biases and, what’s more, amplify them, and we talk to some of the people out there who are fighting back. Our guests are Kasia Chmielinski (they/them) - Co-Founder of the Data Nutrition Project, an initiative that builds tools to mitigate bias in artificial intelligence - and Ndapewa Onyothi Wilhelmina Nekoto - an independent researcher & community builder, part of Masakhane.
Resources:
QT.bot - Sitting here with you in the future by Lucas LaRochelle (CA)
Ceux sans qui la terre ne serait pas la terre by David Shongo (CD)
On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? by Emily M. Bender, Timnit Gebru, Angelina McMillan-Major, and Shmargaret Shmitchell
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Host & Producer: Ana-Maria Carabelea
Editing: Ana-Maria Carabelea
Music: Karl Julian Schmidinger
________________________
Host & Producer: Ana-Maria Carabelea
Editing: Ana-Maria Carabelea
Music: Karl Julian Schmidinger
The Digital Deal Podcast is part of European Digital Deal, a project co-funded by Creative Europe and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport. Views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and guests only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) can be held responsible for them.
Previous Episode

Data Lords
In this episode, we unpack the ownership and production of data that feeds today's hungry algorithms. What has thus far been described as a process of extraction reveals itself more and more as production. We talk to artist, filmmaker, and writer Hito Steyerl and award-winning journalist Karen Hao about the hidden labour behind the so-called data 'extraction', its appropriation through practices reminiscent of colonialism, and what needs to change for the AI industry to stop perpetuating harmful practices in which data is yet another commons turned into a commodity.
Resources:
AI Colonialism Series by Karen Hao, Heidi Swart, Andrea Paola Hernández, Nadine Freischlad
Power and Progress - Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity by Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson
Host & Producer: Ana-Maria Carabelea
Music, Editing & Mixing: Karl Julian Schmidinger
________________________
Host & Producer: Ana-Maria Carabelea
Editing: Ana-Maria Carabelea
Music: Karl Julian Schmidinger
The Digital Deal Podcast is part of European Digital Deal, a project co-funded by Creative Europe and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport. Views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and guests only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) can be held responsible for them.
Next Episode

Truth Preachers
The changes in how information is collected, produced, and disseminated leave their mark on the way information is consumed. This episode unpacks the qualitative shifts the algorithmic dissemination of information has brought to the media landscape and how in turn that affects citizens and their engagement with the democratic processes. We talk to Marta Peirano, Nina Jankowitz & Fabian Scheidler about how mis- and disinformation alter the societal fabric and what the future of journalism holds.
Resources:
The Social Dilemma
The Facebook Dilemma
Joy Buolamwini - Algorithmic Justice League
Bad News - Play the fake news game!
Books by our guests:
Against the Future. Citizen Resistance in the Face of Climate by Marta Peirano
The Enemy Knows the System by Marta Peirano
How to Be a Woman Online by Nina Jankowitz
How to Lose the Information War by Nina Jankowitz
The End of the Megamachine - A Brief History of a Failing Civilization by Fabian Scheidler
The Stuff We Are Made of - Rethinking Nature and Society by Fabian Scheidler
Host & Producer: Ana-Maria Carabelea
Editing: Ana-Maria Carabelea
Music: Karl Julian Schmidinger
________________________
Host & Producer: Ana-Maria Carabelea
Editing: Ana-Maria Carabelea
Music: Karl Julian Schmidinger
The Digital Deal Podcast is part of European Digital Deal, a project co-funded by Creative Europe and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport. Views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and guests only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) can be held responsible for them.
The Digital Deal Podcast - Truth Makers (Part I)
Transcript
Ana-Maria Carabelea: Welcome to The Digital Deal Podcast, the series where we talk about how new technologies reshape our democracies and how artists and critical thinkers can help us make sense of these changes. We're recording this episode at the Ars Electronica Festival 2023 in our beloved location, Post City, so at times you'll hear trains in the background. My name is Ana Carabelea, and for the first part of this episode, I'm joined by Kasia Chmielinski and Ndapewa Onyoth
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