What is AI? A dominant view describes it as the quest "to solve intelligence"—a solution supposedly to be found in the secret logic of the mind, such as in its complex neural networks. Matteo Pasquinelli argues, to the contrary, that the inner code of AI is shaped not by the imitation of biological intelligence, but the intelligence of labour and social relations. Here he is interviewed by Richard Hames, audio producer at Novara Media.

Matteo Pasquinelli's new book, The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence, is out now: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/735-the-eye-of-the-master?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=verso_video&utm_content=the_eye_of_the_master

Matteo Pasquinelli is associate professor in Philosophy of Science at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. His writing has appeared in AI and Society, e-flux, Multitudes, Radical Philosophy, and the South Atlantic Quarterly, amongst other journals.

0:00 Intro

0:39 What is an algorithm

6:03 Algorithms are social not natural

8:56 Large language models (ChatGPT)

13:09 AI and the social division of labour

16:26 Babbage and machines

18:00 IQ tests and psychometrics

19:39 AI and automation

26:39 All labour is logic

29:30 Measuring intelligence is reductive

35:07 What is the political response? Provincialising AI

37:59 AI as a snapshot

43:32 AI vs actual humanity

45:41 Connectionism and AI utopianism

49:58 Research, regulation and risk