Kate Crawford, Atlas of AI

Kate Crawford is a leading expert on how artificial intelligence is altering life as we know it. In Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence,Crawford reveals how the global networks underpinning AI technology are damaging the environment, entrenching inequality, and fueling a shift toward undemocratic governance. She takes us on a journey through the mining sites, factories, and vast data collections needed to make AI “work”—powerfully revealing where they are failing us and what should be done.  

While technical systems present a veneer of objectivity and neutrality, Crawford shows how they are designed to serve and intensify existing systems of power. Drawing on a decade of original research, she shows how the new infrastructures of AI reflect the beliefs and perspectives of a small group of people and serve the interests of the few at the expense of the many. Addressing the concentration of power in AI is one of the most urgent challenges for the next decade, Crawford argues, and the stakes—for justice, due process, and democratic participation—could not be higher.  

Stanford Professor of Communication Fred Turner will moderate the conversation. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Communication, the Digital Civil Society Lab, and the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society. It is free and open to the public.