ou probably use artificial intelligence for work and personal matters. And it’s quite likely that you have good experiences with it. In many respects, Generative AI is a game-changing technology that can make life easier.
At the same time, AI leads to new dependencies and claims to power. Authoritarian and technocapitalist interests have already joined forces to consolidate their gains and influence. To them, democracy and human rights are mere obstacles on their road to sovereign power.
HOTHOUSE addresses this issue by offering renegade counterstrategies that are conducive to the revival of democracy as a broad agency based on openness, inclusion, diversity and social as well as ecological justice.
Marit Seyer provides insights into how AI-augmented conflict strategies and weapons are used to gain control. Marek Tuszynski counters misinformation, polarization and inequality on the level of societies and well as climate change. In both cases, AI is used to escalate divisions instead of mitigating them. John Palmesino explores what it takes to resist the dismantling of democracy. And Felix Stalder broadens the narrow focus of the AI debate to include embodied and living forms of intelligence. Palmesino and Stalder participate via 3D-Point Cloud Live Video Sharing, our technology for contributors who are not on site.
HOTHOUSE does not use AI to create art. It is not about AI aesthetics or whether AI can be made more "ethical" or "friendly". HOTHOUSE explores what it takes to reclaim democratic agency in the face of AI alliances between authoritarian and technocapitalist forces that reinforce inequality and injustice.
How can we rid ourselves of those who threaten fundamental human rights and the conditions of life on the planet? In times of total lack of transparency, betrayal of trust and disclosure of secrets turn into acts of self-defence against the abuse of technology, law and power.